Subject 880

(c. 1999)

17th March 2021

“Back when I was a teenager ... so it was maybe 5 minutes of TV … before the news or something like that.

“…it was just a prelude and a fugue ... and it was filmed beautifully. Like, real close ups of fingers and it was very sort of intimate. I just was absolutely sort of sucked into it.

“I was old enough to have, like, a TV in my bedroom so you know … very much connected with that coming of age time … and I was, like, taken aback by how, how beautiful they were.

“So there was one, actually I always still to this day love this piece because of the way it was recorded. I don't know his name … this guy, who had long hair and had rings on his fingers.

“And the shot ... those shots were this close and his fingers were, like, rolling through because it's all these scales coming down and I just remember watching his fingers fold down over …

… it's like this is one of those pieces that just plays itself. I feel it's just so, it's like a ticker tape of just lines and notes … I could sort of see the unfolding of the music in the fingers. 

Very very intimate. I mean, I think most of it was filmed at the keys.”

24th March 2021

“It's a very strong image … I can remember the shape of his hand and now … I understand … he was doing this sort of thing where his fingers were very strong. And the unfurling of those lines just really suited that hand shape.

“… one of his rings was gold and green … there's one on his little finger, which is like, that's just insane to me. He's got very, very thick glasses … long hair … in a ponytail.

“It's a pianist on their own, in a room. There's no audience, nothing like that … just very intimate … I remember him more than anyone else.

“I can hear it, when I think of the memory. I mean … it's, like, so 3D, is this memory … and it's the sound with fingers.”

14th April 2021

“ … this is just a memory of this specific one, that I don't actually play myself … probably because I like this memory of it… so I don't feel I need to play it.

“I can't get the line perfect enough as to how I remember it. No bumps in the line … it's like an exhale that's just so perfectly … spread out. With no struggle … that blue note, that chord … rolls out with this line and it's effortless.

“There was such stillness to the whole thing.”