PEDAL

Pedal is comprised of duo improvisations for two pianos by Australians Chris Abrahams (The Necks) and Simon James Phillips. While Abrahams is inspired by jazz, be-bop, hard-bop, free-jazz, rock 'n roll, Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans, improvisation, Terry Riley, and dare I say... Little Richard, Phillips feels much more at home with the concert hall, opera house, chamber works, Grieg, Janacek, Feldman, Ives, old-school, new-school, classically-trained pianist, conductor, pedagogue. The music: What are they thinking? These guys are doing a recording of acoustic piano music in this day and age?! Just when you think two grand pianos and four hands have nothing to say in this 21st century, you're wrong, because these are two brilliant minds. Every single piece of music on this recording was fully improvised. To borrow a phrase from Ornette Coleman in relation to his view about the state of music in general: "Beauty is a rare thing." Well, here is that rare thing.