Restoration by Ed Harcourt

When I heard Nils Frahm had decreed Piano Day on the 88th day of the year my thought was 'damn - wish I had come up with that'.

I emailed Nils and told him I'd love to do something; he gave me his piano wünder-kind blessing and so the idea of giving you all the opportunity to see me create something in my studio in real-time was born. The BPM is 88 (of course) (88 keys on the piano etc...) and everything on this piece is taken from the piano and was recorded yesterday between 10am and 11.30am.

I started by recording the pedals as a simple rhythm, then a cyclical chord sequence. After that I just put down what ever came into my head, attempting to create some kind of Tangerine Dream/Steve Reich/Satie hybrid I guess…

I have to say I really enjoyed doing this - it feels pretty mad creating such a track with various limitations according to the instrument and time frame knowing that everyone is watching your every little move…

I've decided to call this 'Restoration' after watching the BBC News documentary about the only grand piano in Gaza and how they restored it; I was really moved in particular by Sara, the girl who was preparing for the concert towards the end of the documentary; she talked about how important music was to her, the fact that there was all this destruction and also a slight oppression from their government towards the music school (which quietly exists in the hospital) yet through it all, the desire to learn and play the piano compels her, spurs her on to succeed and survive in some way.

If you feel like making a donation (you can pay what you want or nothing at all), it's much appreciated. All funds will be forwarded on to the Belgian charity MusicFund (http://musicfund.eu), who are funding the restoration of the piano in Gaza.

All the best, EH x

You can watch the BBC documentary here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-32042375

You can see the archived broadcast of Ed recording the track here: https://youtu.be/je7alIIDVzo

Tracklist

1.	Restoration	17:16

Credits

released March 30, 2015

All music by Ed Harcourt (edharcourt.com).

Cover photo by Steve Gullick (gullickphoto.com), taken at Latitude Festival.

License