John Palmer

Delighted to be among the contributors of Looking Within – The Music of John Palmer , new publication by Vision Edition. The book is dedicated to the work of composer, pianist, improviser John Palmer, which has inspired several investigations into different aspects of his music. I’ve contributed with an essay and an interview focussing on one of my favorite topics, the mutual influence of composition and improvisation in the creation of a piece of music – and, consequently, how this affects re-creating the piece during performance.
Here are some infos and reviews:

“This fascinating collection of interviews and essays is a testament to the breadth and depth of John Palmer’s creative imagination. However, it is not just a book about a single composer and the dynamic of inheritance and originality that their art evokes, but about music itself. It is about music as an expression of human values which is inseparable from other disciplines such as poetry, philosophy, anthropology, the visual and dramatic arts and other disciplines through which human beings seek to capture the meanings fundamental to their existence. Palmer’s driving motivation is to explore how these meanings can be uncovered by music, bringing music into dialogue with all the other pursuits of human spirit. It is a book for anyone who has felt that music is more than entertainment, and feels the urge to explore and give content to this feeling.”
Dr. Mikolaj Slawkowski-Rode, Philosopher, Blackfriars, University of Oxford, and University of Warsaw.

Writers and interviewers: Paul Alan Barker, Daniel Biro, Eva Böcker, Anna Cepollaro, Patrick Crossland, Késia Decoté, Ricardo Descalzo, Theodor Flindell, Neil Heyde, Egbert Hiller, Jeffrey Holmes, Ikuko Inoguchi, Suzanne Josek, Johannes Klumpp, Anne LeBaron, Charlotte Leport, Carin Levine, Andrew Lewis, Matsuo Masataka, Christina Meissner, Vittorio Parisi, Claudie Reduron, Klaus Schöpp, Aanaya Shanaya, Gavin Stewart, Nick Storring, Sergej Tchirkov, Agnese Toniutti, Dan Weymouth, Peter Wiegold.
Edited by Sunny Knable
384pp, 257x182mm, colour