London-based Australian pianist, composer and technologist Zubin Kanga returns to Australia with the third instalment of his piano and electronics trilogy, PIANO EX MACHINA.
PIANO EX MACHINA is the latest mind-bending piano and multimedia international tour by award-winning London-based pianist, Zubin Kanga. Following his critically acclaimed tours Dark Twin (2015) and Cyborg Pianist (2016), Kanga returns to Australia performing ground-breaking works exploring video games, internet culture, 80s action cinema, sci-fi concepts, 3D motion sensors, interactive visuals, analogue synths, stop-motion animation and Artificial Intelligence. Featuring new works by some of today’s most pioneering composers for music and multimedia from Australia, the UK and Germany, including Alexander Schubert’s iconic internet-based score, WIKI-PIANO.NET.
Photo by Raphael Neal.
10.4.19 MELBOURNE Prudence Myer Studio, Ian Potter Southbank Centre, 7:30pm
13.4.19 SYDNEY Music Workshop, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, 7:30pm
24.4.19 PERTH Studio Underground, State Theatre of WA, 7:30pm
26.4.19 BRISBANE Queensland Conservatorium of Music, 7:30pm
Reviews from the tour:
Limelight review: “Kanga is a leading innovator of new approaches to the piano, and he has introduced a range of novel forms of interaction between live musicians and new technologies, including film, artificial intelligence, motion capture, 3D modelling, animation, and virtual reality. Along with these extensions of the piano and performer – extended techniques, for lack of a better term – Kanga is a staunch proponent of contemporary new music, drawing in works that explore the world and our culture from its most profound to its most absurd. …. Kanga’s Piano Ex Machina is a rewarding experience, rich in possibility, infused with curiosity and playfulness, and not afraid to explore conceptual and expressive horizons well beyond the boundaries of a traditional piano recital.” (Ben Wilkie, 5 stars, live review, Ian Potter Southbank Centre Melbourne, April 2019)
SeeSaw magazine review: “Ballast is all that you would expect from a Jon Rose composition; it is virtuosic, in your face, and full of wacky antics. More use of sampling comes in Tristan Coelho’s Rhythm City, which sees the performer manipulating everyday sounds and video-clips with a MIDI controller. Kanga makes the videos stutter and glitch, looping them forwards and backwards. The piece is a feature for his virtuoso keyboard technique; he pummels the piano during the jazz-inflected passages and regains his composure in the minimalist figures… A real sense of exploration with the sonic material is present in Zubin Kanga’s Transformations, which in contrast to the more art music oriented pieces in the program, delves into electronic dance music with a decidedly experimental bent. Low clusters of sound are contrasted with arpeggiated patterns on a synthesiser, and the stark mood pervading the work makes it revelatory of Kanga’s musical personality.” (Eduardo Cossio, live review, State Theatre Perth, April 2019)