German, Berlin-based hyper-pianist Magda Mayas and Australian, Sydney-based reed player Jim Denley are singular, experimental improvisers who seek to expand the sonic palette of their instruments, the acoustic, prepared piano, often with objects, and the flute. They first performed at the Densité Festival in France in 2011, and released their debut album Tempe Jetz (Relative Pitch, 2017, which was recorded at Temple Jetz in Sydney).

One Another is framed by a quote by Australian philosopher Rosalyn Diprose, whose work focused on concepts and issues at the intersection between philosophies of embodiment, existential phenomenology, and biopolitical theory: «The body’s relation to the social is inseparable from, and of the same relation to the world, not a relation of objectification but a carnal intertwining prior to any reflective judgement». (from Corporeal Generosity, On Giving with Nietzsche, Merleau-Ponty, and Levinas (State University of New York, 2002).

The three-piece suite of One Another applies Diprose’s concept of the politically sensitive notion of generosity to the free improvising dynamics of Mayas and Denley. Mayas plays the late Dutch-Australian sound artist, composer, and instrument builder Cor Fuhler’s piano. Both Mayas and Denley explore the resonant timbres of the percussive, prepared piano and the ethereal flute, with Denley’s extended breathing techniques, in a gently shifting conversational interplay, attuned to every nuance. They sound like no other, sketching enigmatic, almost electroacoustic textures, and often act like otherworldly sonic magicians who perform mysterious, emotional rituals aimed at recalibrating our listening sensibilities as well as our generosity.

Eyal Hareuveni

Magda Mayas (piano, objects), Jim Denley (flutes)