Goodnight by Jeff Myers

When is a piano not a piano?

Goodnight, enigmatically, is Jeff Myers’s answer: floating piano sonorities tracing where a piano once was, but without all the hardware. Perhaps, as it were, an after-dinner sleep dreaming on both.

“As a night owl, often going to bed a little before dawn, I often find myself with adequate quiet time where I can sit with long sounds and stare into them with my ears. In the middle of the pandemic, I began to make extended drone compositions for my own enjoyment or, sometimes, as a way to relax and fall asleep. I drew on my large catalog of piano harmonics as fodder for these dronescapes; stretching, shaping, and layering them to make walls - and clouds - of sound.”

While the waking Myers often gravitates towards narrative stories told through his acoustic compositions, this set of nocturnal, spectral sounds exists more as atmosphere – phases and feelings suggestive of a night well spent. “The result is something of an outlier in my creative output, but something I truly enjoyed, and I hope that listeners will drift with the flow as I have.”

Highlights of the eight electroacoustic pieces include Goodnight that sets the tone for the entire experience. Orbital pulsates at different tempi; much like planets orbiting the sun, they move at different speeds and intersect at various junctures. Oxytocin plays with the idea of human touch and the magical feeling of physical connection. Overdose simulates a mild drug overdose: the initial sensory overload and distress, followed by distorted thinking, hallucinations, or anything else you can imagine. Pulsar returns to the bright energy of the earlier drones. Digestif sits low in register and growls bitterly. Date Night, with its sense of anticipation and blissfully satisfactory conclusion is one for the record.

Enthusiasts of La Monte Young, Eliane Radigue, Sunn O))), Hans Joachim Roedelius, or Georg Friedrich Haas will find themselves in vaguely familiar territory. Best experienced with working subwoofers, when feeling a bit drowsy.

New York-based composer, Jeff Myers, has written for artists such as Hilary Hahn (including on her Grammy winning album), mezzo Rachel Calloway, the JACK Quartet (featured on his album Requiem), Fort Worth Opera, Beth Morrison, Orchestre National de Lorraine, Ekmeles, Miolina, and pipa virtuoso Yang Jing.

Classically trained composer of orchestral, chamber, opera, vocal, and experimental electronic music. based in NYC.

jeffmyersmusic.com