Tracklist
 01 | Introduction | 0:31  |
| 02 | Tamarack Pines (George Winston cover) | 5:00 |
| 03 | Raymond Blue 2010 | 5:53 |
| 04 | Longing… | 6:34 |
| 05 | Variations On A Blue Waltz (based on a Bo Moonlight’s piece) | 4:05 |
| 06 | The Monster Still Lives… | 1:48 |
| 07 | The Illusionist | 12:50 |
| 08 | Ramifications Dans L’Escalier Du Diable (György Ligeti cover) | 6:11 |
| 09 | La Boîte Secrète | 4:53 |
| 10 | De Luces y de Sombras, Parte II: A lo Inalcanzable | 3:31 |
| 11 | De Luces y de Sombras, Parte III: La Brecha | 6:30 |
| 12 | Waltz and Nocturne In C# Minor (Frédéric Chopin cover) | 4:19 |
Previews
Details
First release in September 2011. My third and last project of that prolific year.
«Album recording a historical concert in José Travieso’s career offered on the 28th of August of 2011 in the Red Room Auditorium, New York City, as part of the Annual Congress of New Composers and Modern Artists. Over one hour José Travieso returns to the piano, revising old and new pieces, playing new compositions especially created for the event and, finally, making a tribute to old and new composers for whom the innovation has always been one of their most important wills».
This album was presented with this description, but -despite the applause, coughs and other ambient sounds- is not a live album! It was my main project of 2011, which I was composing and recording during the previous 10-11 months.
When I finished the «No More Faith» LP (2010), I thought about the idea of recording a new album for solo piano, but covering 3 fields: 1) new music; 2) old music re-written; and 3) to make a tribute to some composers I admire. Initially I was evaluating several options: to record a conventional studio album with all these elemenets, or maybe to release separate EPs for each topic, or maybe to concentrate on one of the options and leave the others for the future… After a few of weeks working in the project I thought about the option of a live album, first not seriously, but later I concluded that this would be a very good way to offer all content that wanted to gather and a way of trascending the music as art and make a bigger thing, something like “meta-art”. So, «The Illusionist» project was born.
The concept was to present a live album but give some clues -in the music and in the booklet- to think it was in reality a false live album. If the listener “wins the game”, then would get to an internet address which explained in detail the whole concept of the album, being possible there to download a “naked” version of the album, without ambient effects added and so on.
Today and here is irrelevant to continue with the secret 🙂
Some clues:
-The abum title.
-A phrase said at the end of the track #11 (“The reality is that being here has been an illusion”).
-The not Alice Morgan’s North American pronunciation in the introduction of the album/concert (she has an English name but Spanish pronunciation).
-The name of the theatre (“The Red Room Auditorium”… «The Red Room» was one of my pieces in that year).
-In the booklet you can see two images related with the theatre, but if you watch in deatil you’ll notice they are from different places.
-The audience, it’s too big for an underground musician like me!
With the idea of making more convincing the false concert, I wrote a few of false brief news speaking about it in my website (after the date of the concert of course :-), but I left some contradictions in the information and context concerning other (real) news.
Definitely it was fun to make an album from this perspective 🙂
After releasing this album I decided to take some vacations of my music for a while. Finally this was transformed to an undefined rest or abandonment, which lasted almost three years.
Track #2 is a version of the original composition by George Winston.
Track #3 is a new version of the piece released in the «Tres Piezas para Oídos Distintos» EP (2002).
Track #5 is based on an original piece written by Bo Moonlight and called «Blue Waltz»
Track #6 is a brief piano version of the piece «The Monster», released in the «No More Faith» LP (2010).
Track #8 is a version of the original composition by György Ligeti «L’Escalier Du Diable».
Track #9 is an extended revision of music released in «La Boîte» soundtrack (2010).
Tracks #10 and #11 are new versions of pieces released in the «De Luces y de Sombras» LP (2003).
Track #12 is the union of two pieces originally written by Frédéric Chopin: «Waltz Op. 64, No. 2» and «Nocturne Op. 72, No. 1» (a version, working as an interlude).
You can download and get this album on Bandcamp.
The Illusionist
(LP, 2011)
«Album recording a historical concert in José Travieso’s career offered on the 28th of August of 2011 in the Red Room Auditorium, in New York. José Travieso returns to the piano, revising old and new pieces, playing new compositions especially created for the event and, finally, making a tribute to old and new composers»… Isn’t it???
