This show is part of a three-part Liquid Music x Berlin series.

“Moves in the Field shows us that technique doesn’t need to be showy or daring—without sacrificing rigor or heft, it can also be tender.” –Pitchfork

New York-based composer and producer Kelly Moran makes her Minneapolis debut with music from her latest album, Moves in the Field—a personal and energetic work exploring the interplay between human and machine, technical precision and emotional expression.

Moves in the Field is a series of duets for Moran and her Yamaha Disklavier, a technologically advanced version of a player piano. Able to perfectly replicate humanlike playing through intense fine-tuning and programmable dynamics, the Disklaviers used on the album act as a foil to Moran's own striving for a balance of technical perfection and emotional expression in her performances and compositions.

The album is a product of execution, idealism, and careful production influenced by contemporary classical artists like Philip Glass, John Luther Adams, Olga Bell, Julia Wolfe, and David Lang, as well as alternative and electronic artists like Aleksi Perala, Telefon Tel Aviv, and Tori Amos. Utilizing classical minimalism's repetition and texture, but also the idea of modernized and synthesized "texture" found within electronic music, Moves in the Field’s duality exists beyond the idea of humanity versus superhumanity and superimposes Classical Modernity upon an even more contemporary school of thought.

About Kelly Moran

Over the past decade, Moran has challenged the piano's traditional, classically-imposed school of thought with a more contemporary, experimental approach. Her unique strand of experimental piano compositions, which conjure hypnotizing textures and dramatic compositional arcs, have been included on year-end lists across classical, avant-garde, and metal genres.

An accomplished and highly sought-after composer, Moran has collaborated with artists the likes of Oneohtrix Point Never as part of his touring ensemble for 2018 album Age Of, as well as singer and composer FKA Twigs' live ensemble. Moran has also composed for classical musician Margaret Leng Tan and worked with other visionary contemporaries like Kelsey Lu and Yves Tumor. As a solo artist, Moran's critically acclaimed albums, Bloodroot and Ultraviolet, have explored a variety of extended piano techniques like John Cage-inspired prepared piano and exercises in improvisation. Moran's most recent album Moves in the Field moves away from the prepared piano techniques which defined earlier works like 2017’s Bloodroot and instead exists in a sphere somewhat similar to her 2018 Warp debut Ultraviolet (in which the piano was used in a more experimental capacity), this time placing her instrument in a dimension more isolated and inward.