Inland Versions Vanessa Wagner

• 1 Struggle for Pleasure (GAS Version) 07:06
• 2 Hudson Cycle (Marc Mélia Version) 04:52
• 3 Etude n°9 (Nadia Struiwigh Experimental Edit) 06:30
• 4 Elf Dance (Suzanne Ciani Version) 03:10
• 5 The Heart Asks Pleasure First (Vladislav Delay Remake) 09:19
• 6 Struggle for Pleasure (Hüma Utku Version) 05:23
• Total Runtime 36:20

Info for Inland Versions

Through Inland Vanessa Wagner was able to gift us with imaginary landscapes, through which the listeners could roam freely in a gently throbbing natural world, and where each note was a step and every sound formed a path...

Inland Versions is a project that brings all the composers to the present, to thrive in an absorbing conjunction of electronic and piano music; in which the unexpected becomes the new normal.

Re-writing the concept of normality in a way that expresses the unconventional has never been an easy task for anyone, and yet, Vanessa, throughout all her career, has pursued only that path: re-write the conventional in a new unheard form that is endearing, creative, challenging, sentimentally rooted or better said simply hu- man.

This natural predisposition to balance fragile and pure classical sounds with hard beaten dirt electronic ones, is a reflection of John Cage’s work on using electronic devices, Imaginary Landscape (1939), from which the title of Vanessa’s album comes from too.

When we think about complex sounds that are artificial and yet so inherited in our human conception of music, only one incredible sound designer arises to our mind. And it’s her, the modular synthesis mastermind, Suzanne Ciani to sign one of the tracks: “Elf Dance”. If the original version by Moondog explores a tender world lulling us in the beauty of imaginary lands, the Ciani’s version, instead moves from figurative images to real powerful ones by combining the sounds of a late-night summer sea that while being impetuous is not scary because hugged by a human voice that stands in front of it. It stands not in battle, but comprehension.

The feeling of battle is perceived also in the GAS version of Wim Mertens ́ ́Struggle For Pleasure ́, in which a constant repetitive beat counterposes itself against the Pleasure of a piano. Can love and hate be in a battle? And fear and relief? And sadness and joy? Yes, and GAS proves us how to make them coexist - in human com- prehension, that is methodical and peaceful.

Marc Mélia, in his version of Nico Mulhy's 'Hudson Cycle', creates a battle between an organic piano and dystopic synths, if the first one wins at the beginning, the second overcomes powerfully at the end. The machine has won, de-feating the past but acknowledging that this climax could be possible only through our past music heritage.

The lovely Nadia Struiwigh, in Philip Glass' Etude 9 ́, evokes a struggle in which the textures are the main char- acters. The layers of different sounds shape new lands in which the imaginary can be not creative. The rhythms overlap on each other, the unexpected is vivid, the route is impervious but still known, still reachable and calm in its last beats.

Vladislav Delay gathers all his boldness and takes Nyman’ The Heart Asks for Pleasure ́ First in a new immersive drone seduction. As for Vanessa, Vladislav uplifts the unexpected, and this track is proof that you can undress a composition of its sounds, without losing its core. The drones are provocative and yet never redundant or mis- placed - they are simply struggling in their compressive machinery way.

Hüma Utku, through `Struggle for Pleasure ́, gives us the ultimate ending of this journey in unknown territories. This track feels as a self-reflection of our heartbeats through drum and synths sounds that are hybrid, harsh, dark, strong and at the same easily overwhelmed by the sweetness and tenderness of a piano.

Inland Versions is a perfect combination of every emotion. It’s a combination of nature and machines, of dreams and fears, of freedom and imprisonment. It’s a battle among what we were and what we are and discovering it, through these tracks, it’s a bliss.

Vanessa Wagner, piano, electronics

Vanessa Wagner
A highly individual musician, Vanessa Wagner is characterised by her sensitive and thoughtful playing, the richness of her tone colour, and her artistic choices, which prompt her to traverse the di erent repertories, from that of the fortepiano (which she plays on period instruments) to the music of our time, notably that of Pascal Dusapin and François Meïmoun, both of whom have dedicated several pieces to her. After obtaining a Premier Prix at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris in Dominique Merlet’s class and a postgraduate diploma in the class of Jean-François Heisser, she entered the International Piano Academy Lake Como, where she received the guidance of such great masters as Leon Fleisher, Dmitri Bashkirov, Murray Perahia, Fou Ts’ong and Alexis Weissenberg.

Since being named ‘Solo Instrumental Discovery of the Year’ at the Victoires de la Musique in 1999, Vanessa Wagner has appeared with the leading international orchestras and conductors.

She is also a sought-after chamber music partner, and often shares the concert platform with her musician friends, notably Augustin Dumay, with whom she has a privileged partnership, the pianists Marie Vermeulin, Cédric Tiberghien and Wilhem Latchoumia, and Murcof, a renowned musician on the electro scene.

Vanessa Wagner is artistic director of the Festival de Chambord and has been appointed Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

This album contains no booklet.