Jean-Luc Fafchamps: Morton Feldman: Triadic Memories

First, the details about the recording. Pianist Jean-Luc Fafchamps originally recorded American avant-garde composer Morton Feldman’s Triadic Memories back in 1991. Years later, he discovered he had based his recording on a defective edition of the score. So then he decided to re-record the solo piano work, this time according to the corrected manuscript. The almost 74-minute work moves at a slow but exacting tempo. The music flows and stops, repeats and tends to dissipate into lingering echoes. The overall effect is somewhat chilling, but not in a scary way. It’s sort of like being in a bare room where the walls are all painted white. One tends to perceive things that may be there or may be the product of one’s own imagination. That’s the beauty of listening to a work like this. One’s participation in the aesthetic process is a necessary component to the completion of the composition.