Category Archives: Piano/Keys

‘Phat Feet’ & The Triple Helix

In 2022 I was involved in a couple of cool projects with Music colleagues at Southampton. The first was ‘Exquisite Corpse of AI (Consequences)’ which features music by Drew Crawford, Bella Barlow, Brona Martin and me. This video is the whole piece, but kicks in from near the end of Brona’s part leading into my ensemble contribution Phat Feet.

The Triple Helix Music Project was a collaboration with students and staff from across the Department, led by my friend and amazing colleague Drew Crawford, which responded to the Triplex Helix of the University of Southampton strategy…

Keys on new Dan Mar-Molinero album

My mate and colleague Dan Mar-Molinero’s bigband album ‘Taproot’ has just been released. I played keys on all 5 tracks on the album, which was recorded remotely during the pandemic lockdowns. Dan is a super talented saxophonist and composer. It was great to learn and play his excellent tunes and particularly loved ‘Our Place’, probably as I feature as soloist in the second half!

Some mega musicians feature on the album. Give it a listen!

ANIL SOOD film released

It’s out!!

New film, ANIL SOOD, by Alys Scott-Hawkins featuring new piece, A-listers, by me.

Played by @CliodnaShanahan, mixed by @Drew_soundslike, synth built @PROTODOME

Big thanks to @Ldn_Sinfonietta and especially Anil for sharing his story… https://t.co/cP7k71odd8
— Benjamin Oliver (@benolivermusic) July 25, 2022

Playing the piano…

Back in March I played piano with the Dan Mar-Molinero orchestra on a strange gig bringing together AI and jazz. I’ve had a bit of a strange relationship with the piano over the years. I love playing jazz music in particular but also spent a lot of my 20s around serious players and lost confidence about my playing. Piano has remained central to my compositional practice though. More recently my mate Dan Mar-Molinero keeps asking me to do gigs like this one at Turner Sims. Playing with Jasper Hoiby and Julian Arguelles as well as many other great musicians in this project was fantastic. I like it. I want to do more. Here are some great photos from Ash from whatabouttheash.

Jazz as Social Machine

Excited to be playing piano as part of the Dan Mar-Molinero Jazz Orchestra at Turner Sims on 19 March. Super interesting project with another colleague from the University of Southampton Tom Irvine. We’ll be playing charts from Dan’s new album, sometimes with a jazz robot! What’s not to love!

Tickets available on Turner Sims website.

BOTC Photos

Here are a couple of pictures from recent ‘Birth of the Cool’ gig at Turner Sims from crazy talented photographer Ash Sealy: https://www.whatabouttheash.com/our-story

Was really fun playing jazz again, especially with some super talented musicians…

Mr. Turquoise Synth on Score Follower

Super delighted Mr. Turquoise Synth was selected by Score Follower for their Fall 2020 #FollowMyScore call for works. The piece features the piano skills of Yshani Perinpanayagam and the synth building skills of Blake Troise (aka Protodome).

Pythagoras’ Tool Kit Graphic Score Project

In November Rachel Warr and I did a cool outreach project around Pythagoras’ Tool Kit for the University of Southampton’s Hands on Humanities Day. You can watch the broadcast about the project and find out more at the special project Padlet.

Birth of the Cool

I had so much fun playing tracks from ‘Birth of the Cool’ with the PLAYLIST Collective directed by Dan Mar-Molinero back in June. Here’s a video of ‘Israel’:

PLAYLIST @ Baffi

I’m excited to have a new piece, Drip Feed, premiered by the amazing harpsichordist Jane Chapman on 11 June at Baffi Portswood as part of PLAYLIST. I will also be playing piano in the PLAYLIST Collective, in which we will perform tracks from Miles Davis’ seminal album ‘Birth of the Cool’.

Benjamin Oliver