Michi Renoir returned last night and he switched to Macho Maestro Michi for this one!
Michi Renoir's music has nothing to do with being macho unless the word means incredibly creative, inventive and fascinating.
Synthesizer night is one of the highlights of the week and Michi Renoir always blows it wide open every time he plays. I have yet to hear him repeat a song or, for that matter, repeat anything. He has an incredible talent for improvisation and he's cool with it as he understands that it's a highly-eclectic taste so there won't be hordes of adoring fans screaming YOU RAWK. One of the biggest gifts bestowed on him is that he can focus entirely on his music and play solely for the joy of making the sound.
Michi is classically-trained but there's no chance that taught him to do what he does. At one point he decided he needed to go atonal and that means he was playing all twelve tones in an octave. There are seven or eight tones in a scale so going atonal necessarily means some notes will be discordant with some others but a really gifted musician can still make it work. An even more gifted musician can somehow segue from that within a relatively short space in time to playing a beautiful piano melody and Michi does it in a way that is seemingly effortless.
There is a Green Room at the MusikCircus that performers can use to prepare for their shows. Reis and Aldo played the second show last night and they were in the Green Room so they could hear Michi's performance. That's a very cool thing as they share the same spirit of inventiveness as Aldo is composing new work all the time.
We were very happy to welcome Reis Alter back as she got stuck in traffic last time but not last night!
I've said before what a lovely and ethereal voice Reis Alter brings but I don't think I've mentioned that every time she wears a fantastic outfit. It's important to her to make the show as visually exciting as it is musically.
Last night their performance was focused very much on Reis' singing and that was a wonderful thing as it had been about a month since we had last heard her. You have read already that Aldo Brizzi is a fantastic soloist but, in some ways, it's more difficult to be an accompanist to provide the support without overshadowing someone else and yet he is brilliant at that too. Together they make the Reis Project and you can follow them on Facebook. You can discover Aldo's solo work at the Aldo Brizzi site.
Reis and Aldo don't have the same freedom to be as wildly-creative as Michi as that's impossible when performing as a duo. If one goes off on a musical tangent, there's not much for the other to do but blow bubbles until the other comes back! Nevertheless, their music is always wonderfully innovative and it's to the same consequence as Michi's music as it is highly-eclectic and doesn't receive the support it deserves. However, the real world appreciates inventiveness and innovation much more than Second Life and Reis and Aldo will be performing at a special event at the vineyards in Barolo, Italy, on May 24. (I don't know Italy at all but it looks like Barolo is not far from Genoa in northern Italy)
What gives so much of an international flair to all this is that Michi Renoir is in Austria yet he usually speaks English. Janeel Kharg always accompanies Michi to his shows and she is in Britain but does her best to speak German. Reis Alter is from Brazil and Aldo Brizzi is from Italy. Reis sings in Italian, Portuguese, French, English, and German as well. Cat is in Germany and I'm in Greece. If you put up all the flags, you wouldn't be able to see the stage!
And Cat and I danced!
This was a shot while Michi was playing. I shoot pictures all through the performances and then pick the best one to use for the report. To get the few pictures I used here in this report, I shot over thirty. That doesn't mean I get a medal, it means I'm a lousy photographer but I love to show you how it all went.
Michi Renoir's music has nothing to do with being macho unless the word means incredibly creative, inventive and fascinating.
Synthesizer night is one of the highlights of the week and Michi Renoir always blows it wide open every time he plays. I have yet to hear him repeat a song or, for that matter, repeat anything. He has an incredible talent for improvisation and he's cool with it as he understands that it's a highly-eclectic taste so there won't be hordes of adoring fans screaming YOU RAWK. One of the biggest gifts bestowed on him is that he can focus entirely on his music and play solely for the joy of making the sound.
Michi is classically-trained but there's no chance that taught him to do what he does. At one point he decided he needed to go atonal and that means he was playing all twelve tones in an octave. There are seven or eight tones in a scale so going atonal necessarily means some notes will be discordant with some others but a really gifted musician can still make it work. An even more gifted musician can somehow segue from that within a relatively short space in time to playing a beautiful piano melody and Michi does it in a way that is seemingly effortless.
There is a Green Room at the MusikCircus that performers can use to prepare for their shows. Reis and Aldo played the second show last night and they were in the Green Room so they could hear Michi's performance. That's a very cool thing as they share the same spirit of inventiveness as Aldo is composing new work all the time.
We were very happy to welcome Reis Alter back as she got stuck in traffic last time but not last night!
I've said before what a lovely and ethereal voice Reis Alter brings but I don't think I've mentioned that every time she wears a fantastic outfit. It's important to her to make the show as visually exciting as it is musically.
Last night their performance was focused very much on Reis' singing and that was a wonderful thing as it had been about a month since we had last heard her. You have read already that Aldo Brizzi is a fantastic soloist but, in some ways, it's more difficult to be an accompanist to provide the support without overshadowing someone else and yet he is brilliant at that too. Together they make the Reis Project and you can follow them on Facebook. You can discover Aldo's solo work at the Aldo Brizzi site.
Reis and Aldo don't have the same freedom to be as wildly-creative as Michi as that's impossible when performing as a duo. If one goes off on a musical tangent, there's not much for the other to do but blow bubbles until the other comes back! Nevertheless, their music is always wonderfully innovative and it's to the same consequence as Michi's music as it is highly-eclectic and doesn't receive the support it deserves. However, the real world appreciates inventiveness and innovation much more than Second Life and Reis and Aldo will be performing at a special event at the vineyards in Barolo, Italy, on May 24. (I don't know Italy at all but it looks like Barolo is not far from Genoa in northern Italy)
What gives so much of an international flair to all this is that Michi Renoir is in Austria yet he usually speaks English. Janeel Kharg always accompanies Michi to his shows and she is in Britain but does her best to speak German. Reis Alter is from Brazil and Aldo Brizzi is from Italy. Reis sings in Italian, Portuguese, French, English, and German as well. Cat is in Germany and I'm in Greece. If you put up all the flags, you wouldn't be able to see the stage!
And Cat and I danced!
This was a shot while Michi was playing. I shoot pictures all through the performances and then pick the best one to use for the report. To get the few pictures I used here in this report, I shot over thirty. That doesn't mean I get a medal, it means I'm a lousy photographer but I love to show you how it all went.
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