Description
The principal composer and performer on ‘Finding Shore’ is the British pianist Tom Rogerson; the sound of his playing is further manipulated by Eno by way of an instrument called a Moog Piano Bar. Created by synth pioneers Don Buchla and Robert Moog in the early 2000s, it sits right above a piano’s keyboard, shining an infrared light on each of the 88 keys. When one is played, the beam gets interrupted and triggers a MIDI signal, which can in turn trigger all kinds of noises. In this case, as Rogerson improvised on the piano, Eno was messing about with the signals he was receiving. ‘Finding Shore’, the result of that collaboration, is a record that beautifully smears together modern classical, ambient, and jazz.
The two musicians strike a balance on Finding Shore, fluidly intermingling the acoustic and the electronic. Between their respective spotlight turns, both musicians are on equal footing, challenging and surprising one another, and their listeners, with music that feels alive and wondrous.
