Leon Michener is a London-born pianist whose music spans recordings of 20th-century classical music through to free jazz. Acquiring a small Moog synthesiser at the age of fourteen by saving a year’s worth of pocket money led to his passion for combining acoustic keyboards with live electronics. After graduating from Trinity College of Music where he studied composition, Jazz and 20th century piano literature, he constructed his Klavikon system, a combination of piano, amplification, found objects, feedback and analog processing.
Augmenting the 88 keys with his own inventions and found objects - custom-made microphones, toys, vibrators, and lots of blu-tak allowed him to deliver cascading batteries of percussion, sub-basses and dark abstract soundscapes. He has recorded on numerous labels, including a Classical Cd of works by Xenakis, Cage, Scelsi and Ives on the FMR record label, and a solo Klavikon album on the Nonclassical record label. His latest research has led him to resurrect and explore obsolete keyboard instruments such as the Clavichord, Dulcitone, and the Yamaha CP80 electro-acoustic piano.
“Leon Michener has created something truly original” Observer Newspaper
“An innovative and absorbing concept, carried through by Michener with no mean insight and technical finish” Gramophone Magazine
“A pianist with extraordinary control of the instrument” Wire Magazine
The primary engine of the Klavikon project. A grand piano heavily modified with custom pickups, mechanical actuators, and found objects. It functions simultaneously as a synthesizer, drum machine, and acoustic resonance chamber.
By circumventing traditional digital synthesis, the piano provides an entirely organic, tactile approach to heavy electronic music and techno. Every sub-bass thud and percussive hit is generated physically in real-time.
Explorations into the micro-dynamics of the clavichord. By amplifying the minute mechanical sounds of the tangent striking the string, new percussive and harmonic landscapes are revealed.
The delicate, historically intimate nature of the instrument is subverted and magnified, exposing the raw physical friction of metal on metal as a textural tool for modern composition.
Select notations, graphic scores, and structural frameworks for the prepared instruments.
Labyrinth score for amplified clavichord.
Cannon for amplified prepared piano.
Piece for the memory of Daphne Oram.
Preparations for study #4.
Fugue score. Scraperboard.
Biome score. Scraperboard.
Rorschach score. Scraperboard.
PHD dissertation & interconnected thesis exploring the philosophical and technical frameworks behind the Amplified Prepared Piano.
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