On June 1, 1996, Australian (by way of Italy) pianist
Domenico De Clario began a 28-day project of blind piano performances. Every day at sunset that June -- from full moon to full moon -- in Shaker Village, ME,
De Clario played improvised sets while blindfolded. He began the eccentric practice a few years earlier with concerts staged in such venues as a skyscraper roof in Bangkok, a stairwell in Salvador, Brazil, and a boat sailing down the Yarra River in Australia.
Shaker Road: Quit Existing,
De Clario's first official album, collects the most stunning fragments from the 1996 Maine shows. Reminiscent of
Keith Jarrett's legendary concert in Cologne,
Shaker Road's seven tracks recontextualize the experience of listening as much as their original performances recontextualized the experience of playing.
Shaker Road accomplishes what
De Clario calls "blind-listening" -- the unexpected flow of music without melodies and progressions that can be presupposed by the listener. The resulting songs are characteristically bucolic and touched by nature. The notes drip like raindrops from the trees after a summer shower and the gentle piano playing drifts from dreamlike states to intimate sound portraits of real-life experiences. A meditative record that is both calming and intellectually engaging,
Shaker Road is not for everyone. But it is an album that will change the way anyone views what an album should or can be. ~ Charles Spano