review Klavierraum

Norman Records

After all of that I need something well soothing. Fortunately here’s Henning Schmiedt at hand with his tinkly piano and his magic fingers being all tinkly everywhere. Klavierraum is new on Flau Records and it’s 15 tracks of pure ivory tinkles with the occasional new age whoosh and shuffle in the background. I have to say I quite like this. Its very simple, beautiful music which will appeal to folks who like Hauschka, Brian Eno, Harold Budd etc. Definitely the latter….. Created for his pregnant wife so she could chill out and be all pregnant everywhere it makes me want to get up the duff though I’m not entirely sure how to go about this. I think I’ll have to see my GP in the morning..

Boomkat

Fortunately, Klavierraum really is quite lovely, avoiding post-production high jinks for the most part, instead focussing on Henning’s impressive technique, with which he plots out sturdy melodic passages, or at times dispenses rapid-fire, hugely expressive keyboard runs, which despite their floridity ultimately exude a soothing, even meditative quality. This natural talent is assisted by a recording cloaked in rich, reverberant sustain, augmented by the occasional foray into digital treatments and looped signals. Amazing stuff

textura

German pianist Henning Schmiedt’s Klavierraum sprang from a desire to fill his heavily pregnant wife’s room with music that would enable the listener to be carried away by its beautiful harmonies. Klavierraum certainly succeeds in that regard, though it’s not pure piano music but piano music often complemented by the enveloping presence of silken electronic atmosphere (and the occasional creak of the bench too). The electronic effects, whether they’re more drone-like or looped echoes of the piano itself, resonate, sometimes almost subliminally, as lulling pedal points around which the piano melodies circle and dance. The effect can prove hypnotic, a case in point the soft waves of electronic glimmer that anchor “120ccl Milch.” He accents his playing by stroking the inner strings during “3 Teelöffel Backpulver” and often counters the relaxed background flow with rapid trills. Moods range from contemplative (“1/2 Teelöffel Salz”) and tranquil (“Du und ich”) to impressionistic (“Tee?”), stately (“Kla”), and lyrical (“Vier”).
Elegant and impressionistic, Schmiedt’s music will appeal to fans of Goldmund, Max Richter, Sylvain Chauveau, and Peter Broderick, though Schmiedt’s music is perhaps less minimal and more full-bodied by comparison. His technical facility impresses, too: whether executing rapid runs or playing slowly and softly, he exhibits the poise and touch of a musician who long ago mastered the instrument technically and now deploys that technique in the service of artistry. Schmiedt’s no novice, by the way. His extensive discography of albums, soundtracks, and associated projects for figures such as Mikis Theodorakis and Jocelyn B. Smith dates back to 1987; he’s created a soundtrack for a Kurt Weill film, theatre music for a production of “Metamorphosis” based on Kafka’s story, a “re-instrumenting” of Gustav Mahler’s “Songs on the Death of Children,” and other projects.
August 2008

benzinemag

Par Sébastien Radiguet, le 21 juil 2008.
Un simple aperçu du CV d’Henning Schmiedt suffit à nous persuader du professionnalisme pointilleux et exigent du berlinois, lequel pratique le piano depuis maintenant 36 ans, sous les hautes influences croisées du jazz, de la musique contemporaine et de la world music.
Mais loin d’un quelconque hermétisme rebutant ou de tout autre intellectualisme exacerbé, Henning Schmiedt s’est attaché avec Klavierraum à composer des pièces décomplexées visant à établir un environnement sonore apaisant pour sa femme enceinte.
Il en résulte une succession de vignettes pour piano solitaire (sous maigre assistance numérique), se promenant sans heurt entre les divagations contemplatives d’Harold Budd (influence aisément palpable) et les improvisations impressionnistes de Keith Jarrett.
Si dans sa globalité, Klavierraum dévoile une liberté affirmée et une étonnante souplesse d’exécution de la part du pianiste berlinois, il renferme aussi quelques pièces plus écrites, harmoniquement moins complexes, qui ne sont pas sans rappeler les aspects les plus poétiques de son compatriote Hauschka (à ceci près qu’ici, le bonhomme ne fait pas un usage détourné de son instrument comme c’est souvent le cas chez le pensionnaire de Karaoke Kalk).
Même si à aucun moment, Henning n’abuse des artifices de post-production, préférant préserver l’aspect authentique de sa musique, il n’en néglige pas pour autant le travail du son (quelques jeux d’échos, reverb et delay), allant jusqu’à vaguement déformer et pervertir quelques notes, et à s’autoriser des micro-interventions numériques toujours bienvenues.