ROSNER, MATT - Empty, Expanding, Collapsing

"In the half-light stillness, the old piano rattles. Vibrations set forth into the expanse, at first empty, then expanding, set free then collapsing. This one note, appearing in a fleeting moment, an analog for the beginning of time, but really what is time? Some human construct to interpret chaos, to put some shape to what is happening around us, to associate memory and distance?"

West Australian artist Matt Rösner was amongst the first artists to be released by Room40. His Alluvial album of the mid '00s set out a methodology, guided by a deep interest in spatiality and texture, that still haunts much of his work to this day. Empty, Expanding, Collapsing his latest album, sees Rösner refine the working methods and approaches recently tested on his 2021 edition, No Lasting Form. Being led by a series of improvised melodies and movements, recorded on a borrowed upright piano, this album is simultaneously freeform and highly directed. It documents and tests the tensions that sit at the nexus of creation and composition. Mixed by Taylor Deupree. Mastered by Lawrence English at Negative Space. Cover Image by Traianos Pakioufakis.

From Matt Rösner: "Empty, Expanding, Collapsing was recorded in the months after the release of 2021's No Lasting Form. Whilst No Lasting Form documented a return to the creative process after a long period away, Empty, Expanding, Collapsing comes from a more confident and assured place. At the heart of this record is an upright piano, loaned from a dear friend for safe keeping. Built in the 1898, the piano is heavy, laden with time, a resonant lead sound board and the carefully restored hammers and strings. These pieces started as loose piano improvisations played in the early morning light to be later assembled alongside an array of guitars, electronics, synthesizers, and percussion. Whilst the basis of the tracks started as tentative improvisations, the overdubbed parts were very much painstakingly written, rewritten and aged with sounds of the surrounding dune systems seeping through the wafer thin studio walls." - Room40 .