Kory Reeder is an American, Texas-based minimalist composer and pianist whose music draws inspiration from the visual arts and political theory. In Place is Reeder’s tenth album and corresponds with his Grid Series compositions that were first introduced on Love Songs/Duets (Edition Wandelweiser, 2019). The album features three extended compositions, for Reeder on piano, and his long-time collaborators, violists Kathleen Crabtree and Michael Moore, and it was recorded in Denton, Texas, in 2023.

The In Place cycle of three compositions was inspired by American, minimalist abstract painter Agnes Martin’s concept of the «innocence of the grid» and her belief that beauty resides within the viewer. Therefore, the Grid Series compositions emphasize the performer’s experience and the listener’s lingering tranquil emotional memory, the spiritual «aura» of the piece over exact musical detail. These reductionist but intimate, reflective yet non-linear compositions demand deep listening, explore the intersection of structure and spontaneity, and offer a contemplative haven, «on the edge of silence, on the edge of collapse, and in a kaleidoscope of tones repeating again and again».

The three pieces address the impermanence and fragility of our surrounding natural landscapes. The opening «Landscape Study» creates an interplay between delicate sustained tones and ephemeral gestures that mirror natural landscapes, where persistent elements like terrain and climate interact with transient phenomena such as light and movement. «Field» uses field recordings from Nebraska, where sound emerges from «silence» in subtle, fleeting moments, and encourages deep listening and heightened awareness, as the absence of sound becomes as significant as its presence. The last composition, «In Present Tense», has an open-ended structure that fosters a sense of immediacy and presence, as each idea becomes a unique realization shaped by the performers’ decisions and interactions. Together, these three compositions focus on the poetic potential of silence and sound, and on music that is not only heard but experienced through deep listening, almost as in a spiritual, cleansing ritual.

Eyal Hareuveni

Kory Reeder (piano), Kathleen Crabtree (viola), Michael Moore (viola)