Gershwin/ Kai Schumacher - Kai Schumacher - Insomnia

Insomnia is the story of a nocturnal journey, reassuring and disturbingat the same time, both mystical and unpredictable. An escape fromourselves into the soft focus the night, but then leading us back againat the end, taking us even deeper inside ourselves. Insomnia is theaimless wanderings of the Sleepless One, through inner and outerworlds which remains hidden during the harsh light of day. Insomnia isfive Hymns to the Night, composed by five American composers overa period of nearly 100 years. While at first glance, they may seemstylistically very different, when taken together; these five works arethe perfect soundtrack for a journey through the long hours after thesun has set.At the center of this journey stands A Little Midnight Music, GeorgeCrumb's adaptation of the Thelonious Monk Jazz Standard 'RoundMidnight. He leads his listeners and performers past the neon signs ofthe New York jazz clubs of the 1940s into the oppressive darkness ofthe avant-garde pianist. Sleepless Night and Urban Nocturnes byBruce Stark not only reference jazz, and are the outgrowth of thecomposer's long-standing interest in improvisation. In GeorgeGershwin short Prelude we can almost imagine the clinking of glassesat last call. John Cage's Dream and Brian Belet's Summer Phantoms -Nocturne function as the album's centerpieces and provide a pair ofcontrasting soundtracks for nightly inner escapism.To describe Kai Schumacher as a "punk pianist" would be excessive.His deeply thoughtful style of playing blurs the boundaries of theclassical avant-garde and pop culture without getting stuck in all-toofamiliarcrossover paths. One focus of Kai Schumacher's solorepertoire has been on American piano music of the late 20th and the21st centuries. His debut album of Frederic Rzewski's monumentalvariation cycle The people united will never be defeated! (2010) wascelebrated by FonoForum magazine as "a pianistic sensation". Withhis second album Transcriptions (2013), he ventured into the musicalheroes of his youth - Rage against the machine, Nirvana, Slayer, etc.,transforming the concert grand in his piano remixes into a tonegenerator of monstrous proportions, sound effects board or a set oftuned percussion instruments.