Duane Pitre - Omniscient Voices Duane Pitre

Duane Pitre returns to Imprec with Omniscient Voices, a set of five pieces for piano tuned in just intonation and electronics. It follows a trilogy that began with Feel Free (2012), continued with Bridges (2013) and concluded with Bayou Electric (2015). The shorter pieces on Omniscient Voices give Pitre room to explore a wider range of harmonies across the album.

The project began with a question in 2019: how would a piano tuned in just intonation interact with Pitre’s latest electronic experiments? At the time, he was studying the tonal clusters in Morton Feldman’s scores, reading about Arvo Pärt and reflecting on the pulsing rhythms of Steve Reich and Philip Glass. In 2020, he put the idea to the test, and five pieces grew out of those sessions.

Pitre gives piano and electronics equal weight. His Max/MSP system converts written piano motifs into data in real time, triggering two polyphonic microtonal synthesisers programmed by Pitre himself. He alternates between composed passages and controlled improvisation, responding to the sounds the synthesisers generate from his playing. The result is a musical feedback loop in which piano and electronics continually shape each other.

"'... a complete, immersive work, a blissful pulsing conversation between the organic and the electronic..." * * * * * Mojo

"'Omniscient Voices,' a staggeringly beautiful set of just-intonation pieces by Duane Pitre for piano and electronics." Steve Smith