Piano Studies 337 (180g) [LP]

Sublime piano improvisations from the private press, retrieved by Willem Nyland from another world. Remastered from the original tapes and reissued for the first time, with extensive notes by Matt Marble of the American Museum of Paramusicology.

Willem Nyland (1890-1975), a Columbia-educated chemist by profession and a self-taught pianist, is known as a spiritual teacher in the tradition of the Greek-Armenian mystic George Gurdjieff. In the mid/late 1960s, a break with Gurdjieff led Nyland to form his own group in upstate New York. There, after a Friday night lecture on "The Work" and a sip of brandy, Nyland began remarkable piano improvisations on a specially tuned baby grand piano, sometimes lasting over an hour. Each improvisation was meticulously recorded and cataloged, an important part of Nyland's teachings.

16 of these recordings were released as stand-alone LPs by Nyland's own publishing house, Gauge Hill Press, designed by Hungarian-American decorative artist Ilonka Karasz, Nyland's wife of over 50 years. Each of them contains deep spiritual information and lyrical, almost visual instrumental narratives. Nyland deftly and subtly shifts moods and timbres in these truly inspired, extended improvisations.

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