Veryan Weston is a British, London-based free-improvising pianist who has worked extensively with innovative British improvisers such as Lol Coxhill, Eddie Prévost, Trevor Watts, Caroline Kraabel and Phil Minton. Tessellations 1 continues Weston’s series of autobiographical works that summarises his musical journey that began on an old upright piano in a garage soon after he reached «double figures».
A tessellation is a pattern of flat shapes that cover a surface completely, and Tessellations is an ongoing composition project based on Weston’s research on pentatonic scales (scales having five different notes) developed over a long period of time. Weston has already released three albums in this series for solo Luthéal piano, for piano, flutes, and a choir, and for a choir, string trio, and a piano trio.
Tessellations 1 is a solo piano work that transforms visual interlocking symmetries and geometric shapes into the audible world of pitches, rhythm and counterpoint. This hour-long work was recorded on a rebuilt German concert grand piano at the big Chapel of Cheltenham & Gloucester in the College of Higher Education in November 2001. The microphones were placed inside the piano to avoid the Chapel’s lively acoustics.
Tessellations 1 loosely follows the structure of North Indian Classical music, and its four classic elements: the first part is air and water, and the second part is earth and fire. But it has roots in Far Eastern music. It uses 52 closely linked pentatonic scales. Each scale has a defined frame for improvising in the moment. Each scale also moves one note differently from the previous scale to create a harmonic link, which changes either seamlessly or more dramatically. And each scale has two pre-established areas which are then developed and explored using improvisation.
This work faithfully captures Weston’s rich, multidisciplinary musical journey through jazz, free jazz, free improvisation, and African and British folk music, delivered with graceful elegance and commanding improvisational technique.
Eyal Hareuveni
Veryan Weston (piano)
