Jo David Meyer Lysne and the Self-Playing Piano – Redefining the Sound of an Instrument

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Though the piano arrives on stage without a player, it is not alone. Mounted on steel bars within the instrument are electronic magnets, one per piano key, that have been connected by a thicket of wires—reminiscent of monstrous braces, as though the instrument were suffering youth under orthodontic siege. The magnets come down to the strings, and, as they vibrate at the strings’ own frequencies, the instrument speaks. Wobbling yet fulsome tones suffuse the room, sounding almost nothing like their source, sounding rather as the voice of the room itself, and yet the only suspect is the mostly familiar creature center stage.

This is the Norwegian composer, musician, and instrument builder Jo David Meyer Lysne (b. 1994)’s vision for a self-playing piano, also known as the player piano or pianola, a more than century-old piano variant equipped with a mechanism that allows it to play itself. The instrument, which predated the invention of the recording, allowed users the experience of live piano performances in their homes without having to lift a finger. In “For renstemt klaver” (“For justly-tuned piano”), Lysne joins a legacy of musical tinkerers developing the self-playing piano not as a means of reproducing what a human performer can do, but rather as a sonic world of its own, producing computer-enabled music that eludes human capability.

Melding Lysne’s interest in resonance, tuning, and mechanical objects, “For renstemt klaver” originated in a commission by pianist Sanae Yoshida as part of her PhD project on microtonal pianos, for which Lysne composed a work that Yoshida would play on his bespoke technology. Fixated on the long, rich resonance possible on piano with e-bows, devices that allow one to indefinitely sustain the sound of a string, Lysne became fascinated with the notion of producing such resonance on the piano alone. With personnel at the Norwegian art and technology center Notam, programmer Thom Johansen, and piano tuner Jacob Solheim, whose own practice had expanded into just intonation experiments, Lysne began to develop his tools. The project culminated In a 12-day composition sprint in Bø i Telemark, during which Lysne meticulously tuned, prepared, and wrote for his prepared grand piano in Gulbring Kulturhus, hoping to access a sound beyond the instrument’s normal capabilities.

Different harmonic and mechanical explorations motivate each work on the record. The first is a series of tense chords, while the second investigates descending partials. The third displays Lysne’s first application of “instrumentation”—assigning different roles to treble (steel) strings, which have more of a cello or contrabass sound, and copper strings, which have a brassier timbre. Lysne toys with arpeggios in the fourth, and, during the very short fifth, sends impulses whose frequencies differ from the strings they are interacting with, allowing you to hear the whir of their motor. He gives a folk-like arrangement in the sixth, and then concludes the album by returning to a special chord for Lysne, produced by intervals that create a slow, organic pulse. 

—Jennifer Gersten 

Jo David Meyer Lysne (b. 1994) is a composer and instrument builder based in Gvarv, in the Norwegian county of Telemark. Drawing on interests in robotics, tuning, and acoustic performance, he produces works that consider our relationship to sound, machines, and how we listen. Recent projects with cellist Amalie Stalheim, contemporary ensemble Aksiom, and violin and bass duo Vilda&Inga entail chamber music for Lysne’s own machines and live performers, while other works for self-playing acoustic instruments invite new perspectives on familiar technologies. Independently and in ongoing collaborations with composer and tubist Peder Simonsen, Lysne employs his own inventions to explore possibilities in just intonation.

Trained in improvised music and composition at the Norwegian Academy of Music, Lysne has released numerous albums as solo performer and collaborator with such artists as Peder Simonsen, Wendra Hill, Mats Eilertsen, and Jenny and Jo Berger Myhre on Hubro and SOFA Music. His music has been performed throughout Norway and broader Europe by such presenters as Festspillene i Bergen (Bergen International Festival) (NO), where he was a featured composer; Borealis Festival (NO); Eclectic Sound (PL); and Ultima (NO). Lysne is a recipient of numerous Norwegian artist grants, including the prestigious Statens Kunstnerstipend, awarded for research in robotics within chamber music. His works have received praise in The Wire, Morgenbladet, and The New York Times.