eightyeight.five (Piano Day 2025)

Marcus Herne returns with another Piano Day release, using the piano as a resonating chamber for electronic sounds “Why does the world need a Piano Day? For many reasons. But mostly, because it doesn’t hurt to celebrate the piano and everything around it: performers, composers, piano builders, tuners, movers and most important, the listener.” – Nils Frahm Piano Day, an annual worldwide event founded by a group of likeminded people, takes place on the 88th day of the year – in 2025 it’s the 29th March – because of the number of keys on the instrument being celebrated. eightyeight.five is the fifth piece Herne has created for Piano Day, all of which have strayed from the more traditional sounds and styles associated with the instrument in order to explore its unbound harmonic breadth. This year Herne has become interested in how sound works within different environments and wanted to explore how the body of the piano could be used as a resonating chamber for sounds played from an alternative source. The source in this instance is a system of cycling tones, all generated via a synthesiser that could be controlled, manipulated and adapted and then played at a high volume into the open body of an upright piano, using various types of microphones to capture the sound in and around the piano. “I wanted to explore using the body of the piano to resonate and amplify sounds from an alternate source and respond to ” Herne purposefully used very basic wave forms in the synthesis of the sounds played at the piano, in order to allow the body of the instrument to provide the more complex characteristics. The piano acted as a sonic mirror that reflected the sound back to Herne, which he then responded by making further adjustments to the system that would be fed back into the piano. He spent time making subtle changes to this cycle and direction and structure took form, resulting in a performance lasting 7 minutes and 52 seconds.