Orange Mountain Music is proud to present Philip Glass’s “Etudes for Piano” performed by Dutch pianist Feico Deutekom. Following up on his successful first album on OMM, “Musical Offering” Deutekom’s new album is a new examination of Glass’s piano Etudes, one of the landmark bodies of work in the 21st Century, from a new perspective. The most common approach for pianists is as “completists” and to simple record Glass’s twenty Etudes in straight order.

This recording is a road trip through the last 50 years of minimalist and ambient piano music. From the early sound tapestries of minimalists Philip Glass and John Adams, via David Lang and Arvo Pärt who combine repetition with melody and harmonic colours, to the atmospheric and quiet worlds of Ryuichi Sakamoto, Max Richter and Nils Frahm, what captivates the listener on these recordings is a sense of ambience, an evocation of space. Feico Deutekom breathes life and shape into these works, many of which have a delicately melancholy tone. He is able to convey both the rhythmic complexity and the panoramic quality of this music, where silence and the spaces lingering between the notes are often as important as the notes themselves.

The culmination of many years of friendship between two of the most important artists of our time, this composition serves as a tribute to the profound influence Glass and Close have had upon one another’s work as well as upon generations of other musicians and artists.