THUMMLER, BRIAN - Ghost Birds

"Brian Thummler's Ghost Birds combines piano improvisations and noise to create a uniquely compelling musical duality. These seven pieces, selected by John Brien, are inspired by a lifetime of experience, art and poetry as well as Cage, Merzbow, Satie, Sun Ra. Ghost Birds takes flight with experimental simplicity. The interaction of noise and piano, a synergy that also pushes and pulls, creates profound musical dimensions available to the attentive listener. Ghost Birds was recorded in a studio and on an enclosed porch where an old, noisy out of tune upright grand piano lives. Traffic sounds seep in and plant themselves in the recording while the human soul empties into the piano. Who is Brian Thummler? To quote the poet Lu Yu, he is "the old man who does as he pleases." Handmade, letterpressed O card slip sleeve."- Cassauna.