Bruce Brubaker who is deservingly named “one of the most exciting pianists in the contemporary American classical scene” by Pitchfork releases his album Eno Piano 2 today.
The album explores Brian Eno’s ambient music using a Steinway concert grand piano with electromagnetic bows to create sustained drone textures. Building on the acclaimed Eno Piano 1, which received praise from The New York Times, The Guardian, and The Line of Best Fit, Brubaker draws parallels between Eno’s music and American Minimalists like Philip Glass. The album includes reinterpreted tracks like «The Big Ship» and «Music for Airports, 1/1,» using advanced IRCAM spatialization tools to create an immersive acoustic experience, turning the piano into a supernatural synthesizer.
Aided by electromagnetic bows that create sustained drone textures from a Steinway concert grand piano, Brubaker shows that, as he says, “A musical instrument can be a studio.” A good-natured response to Brian Eno’s often-repeated remark that, “The recording studio is a musical instrument.”