Kasper Agnas probably wants to impress us with the complex and restless ‘imber’ composition for 14 musicians on his short album 1305 (HAPHAZARD MUSIC HAP2309), but personally I’m more taken with the longer piece ‘Little Towels of Air…’, which is just solo piano (played by Johan Graden I think), very moving, and has a direct simplicity which I enjoy. It’s perhaps odd that I find it wholesome and satisfying, as apparently Agnas composed it in a very fragmented and bitty way, working over several days at the rate of five-to-twenty chords a day, until he’d built up sufficient material to call it quits. He thinks the finished result lacks form, and invites the listener to find meaning and structure in what he may regard as an open-ended misty haze; but I would beg to differ. These lovely chords are joined by air and space as surely as a piece of imaginary architecture, and can accommodate many tourists in search of a good hotel. On a good day, I’d tell you it’s a mix of three favourites, Satie, Feldman, and Florian Fricke. (March 2023)
