Learning

Description

Sophie Agnel’s first solo LP Learning arrives as she faces the challenge of re-learning the piano after a brain tumour diagnosis. Known for transforming the instrument’s possibilities over four decades, Agnel has long abandoned strict classical tradition in favour of raw, unpredictable sound.

Her piano bristles with everyday objects — fish tins, ping pong balls, wooden blocks — generating textures that shift between surging resonance and delicate detail. On Learning, feedback, ghostly harmonicas and guitar-like tones spill into passages of striking stillness, where masses of noise collapse into a single clarifying note.

The result is a fearless work of invention, placing Agnel’s radical, physical approach among the most compelling voices in contemporary piano music.