SONIC AND CHER

Have you ever wondered what a Cher and György Ligeti mashup would sound like? Me, neither, but that’s how last week’s Piano Spheres concert at 2220 Arts + Archives began, which also doubled as the release party for Thomas Kotcheff’s new album, Between Systems, an exploration of interpreting existing works without relying on strict fidelity to the written note.

Between Systems Album Cover

Concert Prelude No. 1: Believe (2025) places Cher’s Believe (1998) on top of Ligeti’s Musica Ricercata No. 1 (1951-53). While Kotcheff banged away on Ligeti, composer and electronic artist Bryan Curt Kostors reworked Cher, flattening her pitch to be more in line with MR1, which uses one pitch class for nearly the entire piece. While Cher was the focus for the first half, since MR1 is so quiet, she ultimately got short shrift. Believe got altered and sped up to match MR1, which, in contrast, was played straight.

Thomas Kotcheff and Bryan Curt Kostors

Kostors, now on synth, joined Kotcheff on stage for Nature Pieces (1951) by Morton Feldman, one of those piano pieces that has more rests than notes (random notes, of course). While Kotcheff played as written, Kostors gave the piano various treatments. He made it sound as if underwater, added rumbles and dance beats, sometimes provoking a peaceful mood, while at others sounding like a horror movie. In his intro, Kotcheff explained that he and Kostors wanted to evoke Kotcheff’s counting in his head of Feldman’s fiendish time signatures, thereby filling in the silences. But isn’t filling in the silences just an admission that this kind of music, regardless of effort to play, is empty and short on pleasure?

Thomas Kotcheff

This went straight into a collection of four smaller pieces, with Squarepusher’s glowing Tommib (2001) and Aphex Twin’s peaceful aisatsana (2014), both performed substantially as written. Those alternated with two more from Feldman: Intermission 3 (1951) and 5 (1952). Kostors made 3 sound like a space movie, and 5 he added gloomy static. The Intermissions have hardly any notes, so the focus was mostly on Kostors’ soundscapes.

Bryan Curt Kostors

Next was the most oddball selection of the night: Obbligato Snare Drum Music No. 1: The Power of Love (2020), a snare drum solo for Michael Compitello, who joined Kotcheff, played against Celine Dion’s cover of The Power of Love, aggressively and randomly sped up and down. They sometimes enhanced each other, but they didn’t really mesh overall. It mostly felt like random pounding on top of Dion. The climax, though, was very satisfying, as Compitello and Kotcheff finally gave in to the easy pleasure of that great pop song. But then they went back to turning Dion’s singing into sour notes…

Sophie Mathieu’s world-premiere piano solo, the voice that fades, begins with piano plucking, rarely a good omen. Grim, gloomy, and mellow. There’s no buildup or climax. When it’s over, it just stops.

Kotcheff saved the fireworks for Grand Passacaglia No. 1: Love on Top (2025), which took Beyoncé’s song to an insane extreme. Starting with some banging on the piano, the Love on Top chorus was played back slowly, making Beyoncé’s voice very low and unintelligible. Kotcheff started on the low end of the piano, pumping out random notes, but was generally obscured by the overbearing playback (and almost completely blocked by the earplugs the theater handed out; amplification throughout the evening was too loud). Then followed endless repetitions of the chorus, gradually speeding up, following Beyoncé’s key changes all the way to the high end of the piano, at which point Kotcheff furiously attacked the keys and Beyoncé was screaming ever higher and faster, and for way too long. Interesting, but also maddening and disturbing. How disturbing? When I was at a pool party a few days later, the Love on Top chorus started playing and my blood froze.

Allison Tanenhaus provided video art for the three pop songs, all done in the same style and color scheme. She took the music videos and ran them through various filters, sometimes reducing the stars to outlines, other times covering the picture with blazingly colored video noise. She then rotated the filters out every few seconds, without regard for the music. It came across as mindless as a Winamp visualization. I was hoping for more than that.

performance photos by Louis Ng, courtesy of Piano Spheres
album photos courtesy:

Thomas Kotcheff: Between Systems
Piano Spheres
reviewed September 16, 2025, at 2220 Arts + Archives, 2220 Beverly Blvd.
for more info and future concerts, visit Piano Spheres and Thomas Ketchoff