On his MySpace site, Queensland, Australia-based Leighton Craig writes that his music sounds like “blurred geometry and distorted hymnals.” 11 Easy Pieces actually contains thirteen mostly short (but for one, the durations range from 00:59 to 2:59) compositions recorded at home and captured on cassette tape during 2003 - 2004 using an assortment of analogue keyboards including his favorite the Casio MT40. The truly remarkable thing about Leighton’s work is his gift for taking such simple keyboard instruments and extracting the seldom revealed singular tonal fullness that they are capable of producing.
Others might disagree, but for me the release contains ten “easy pieces” and three not so easy compositions. The sounds on the “easy pieces” range from a single, gently vibrating tone on The Fifth which seamlessly becomes the melodic and rather sad One Easy Piece to the mischievous, and rapidly played downward spiraling scales of Vertical Lines Descending to the contemplative melody of Circle of Thought to the melancholic and hymn-like melodies of In Memorium, The Question Answered, The Last Easy Piece, and Hymn for Agnes Martin.
The remaining three tracks delve into more experimental, less harmonious, and less structured territory. Self-Portrait Underwater has a slow-moving, sonar-sounding, sunken ambiance that surprisingly winds down during the last thirty seconds to reveal a happy little looped melody. Signal Pattern interplays rapid-fire staccato tones with what sounds like the percussive clatter made by the keystrokes of a typewriter. The ultimate keeper for me though is the ten-minute standout droning dirge Threondy which refers to a song/poem that expresses mourning or lamentation. On this piece Leighton manages to coax some seemingly impossible deeply cavernous tones out of his keyboard and transform them into a gurgling mesh of thickly layered resonating tones.
11 Easy Pieces is a highly listenable and pleasantly satisfying release. Compliments to the Room40 label for taking notice of the work of Leighton Craig and putting the spotlight on it.
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