PIANO / LISTEN WITH(OUT) PIANO | VINYL RECORD (LP)

Piano: Hot Chip frontman Alexis Taylor pares everything back to just piano and voice for an intimate record of songs, reinterpretations of his own writing, and a selection of favorites, both well-known and unheard, by other artists. Recorded at Hackney Road Studios by Shuta Shinoda, Piano invites the listener to be privy to a very private recital, with Alexis's vocal and piano captured live and up-close, preserving each beautiful moment. Alexis on the release: "I had always wanted to make a loose and to some extent unplanned piano record - partly inspired by an un-made but suggested Alex Chilton solo piano LP that a friend of mine told me about 15 years ago or so. . . . The idea with this record was to choose songs of my own and others that were personal to me, and to document live performances which were intimate and unadorned. I wanted to reduce everything to the barest elements, record a great piano well and do as little as possible to the recordings EQ or effects-wise. "Listen With (out) Piano: Alexis Taylor's Listen With (out) Piano is a companion album to his 2016 record piano, Piano. Listen With (out) Piano features new versions by artists including Papa M (David Pajo), Green Gartside (Scritti Politti), Spring Heel Jack, Beatrice Dillon, and Brian Degraw (Gang Gang Dance), which can be played on their own, or at the same time as the songs on Piano to create a brand new listening experience. The album features the work of eleven of Alexis's favorite musicians, handpicked to create new tracks and designed to work in response to the songs on Piano, the third solo album by the Hot Chip frontman. "My brief was both very wide open and very specific, and part of the pleasure for me, and now hopefully for the listeners, is to see how everyone responded so differently to the task," Alexis explains. "The results are truly amazing, and here you have a new album that works both as a kind of electro-acoustic ambient companion piece to Piano, and as a series of musical clothes to be put onto the deliberately bare record I released. " Also features Lung Dart, Mammalien, Susumu Mukai, Betsy Taylor, Rupert Clervaux, and Jennifer Herrema. Exclusive artwork by Oliver Payne; Designed by Joe Gilmore. Comes in a gatefold sleeve.