Fellow Jazz Subversives keyboardists/pianists Ray Kamen and John Johnson are teaming up in a double piano offering entitled Zmatek. Kamen has been experimenting with prepared piano for a while now, and uses an old Cable and Nelson grand piano bought off of the Internet for his experimentations.
“I bought small grand for over a little over a year ago for experimentation. I listened to a lot of John Cage beforehand to get a good sense of what I was getting into,” Kamen stated. “I started using a lot of pieces of metal and plastic to get interesting sounds. I also bought a sense of piano hammers to hit the strings directly. I also found many interesting rhythms by banging on the case and soundboard.”
Johnson mostly plays a standard grand as accompaniment to Kamen’s prepared grand. The record will feature between 9-12 tracks and will be released near the end of the year. The first track has been recorded in preparation for The Jazz Subversive’s GroundSwell, but won’t be on that record after all. That track can be heard here: