native I WONDER (ONE MICROPHONE RECORDING)

JURAJ STANIKJURAJ STANIK

I Wonder by Jazz Pianist Juraj Stanik is the latest release from Sound Liaison.  It is the 3rd in their One Microphone Recording series where all of the music on an album is recorded with a single Josephson Engineering C700S Stereo Microphone.  (The earlier One Microphone Recordings of Feenbrothers Play Dave Brubeck and Don’t You Cry by Carmen Gomes Inc. are also available from Native DSD Music.  Including a DSD 512 edition of Feenbrothers Play Dave Brubeck. See linked albums below).

On the album, Stanik plays 10 tracks including his solo piano version of The Fool On The Hill, written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney and first recorded by The Beatles.

The pianist says “Playing solo piano is so demanding. It’s a particular mindset, different from when playing with my trio or duo with flugelhorn player Ack van Rooyen. Solo piano playing is a dialog with the inner self. I noticed that when I get into ‘the zone’, the music starts to flow and somehow it feels that the music plays me!

At the core of this album are melodies that have been lingering in my mind. Being an improviser I transformed these melodies into musical structures, mostly while recording. I started my musical career as a cello player. I feel this influenced the way I phrase music and treat tone quality and melody. Playing classical music made me acquainted with the great classical composers like for instance Mahler or Mendelssohn.

I consider melody as equally important as rhythm or harmony. In terms of harmonic structures, I rather prefer relative simplicity to extreme complexity. Complexity often dictates the player specific things to play, while simplicity gives space to go to different places.”