Kelly Moran announces new album, shares “Butterfly Phase”

Pianist and composer Kelly Moran has confirmed details of Moves in the Field, her first album in six years. The album will be released on March 29 and includes "Butterfly Phase," which is streaming below.

In a press statement, Moran explained how self-playing piano helped her craft her new project. "In early 2020, Yamaha loaned me a Disklavier player piano — a special instrument that allows you to record your performance for the piano to play back on its own," she said. "I was initially working on a duet for myself and another pianist, but when the pandemic hit, the player piano became my duet partner.

"I began writing a series of duets for myself and the Disklavier, exploring all the different ways I could utilize this instrument to merge its inhuman capabilities with my own playing. The Disklavier allowed me to record multiple layers of my playing so I could create music on the piano that would require more fingers or greater endurance than I physically have - like chords that had more than 10 notes in them, or chords that were spaced out farther than my hands could stretch. Sometimes I’d record a pattern and then speed it up to play back faster than I could ever physically play. My imagination exploded at all the possibilities this instrument allowed me to create, and these explorations culminated in my new record Moves in the Field.”

Moves In The Field is Moran’s first full-length album since 2018's Ultraviolet. Late last year she released Vesela, an EP that included her take on the late Ryuichi Sakamoto’s Medusa theme. In addition to making her own music, she has also toured with Oneohtrix Point Never and FKA twigs, as well as collaborating with Yves Tumor and Kelsey Lu.