Andy Brings

Five Times Surprise brings together a volatile mix of longtime compatriots and newly forged relationships. The distinguished improvisers all boast exceptionally diverse resumes. More than finding common ground, they reveal a vast universe of possibilities fueled by creative conflagration and genre blurring. “We’re improvisers who can walk into a room and create something together,” says the project's original instigator Henry Kaiser, who then listed the salient qualities of his fellow players here: the ability to listen, kindness, generosity, and—rare in this electric realm—a sense of humor. All those factors were at work on this new recording.

A piano duo project like no other, Where Is Pannonica? brings together two longtime friends, Andy Milne and Benoît Delbecq, for a three-week composing and recording residency at the Banff Centre in the Rockies, where they originally met in 1990. On this 2009 release these two master performers, each with his own fully evolved style, discover and nurture an almost magical affinity. Beyond a virtuosic exploration of extended pianistics and a cogent, highly entertaining presentation of improvisational intelligence, Where Is Pannonica? is a step outside the box, opening onto barely explored conceptual and sonic realms of audio art.