Luminance (2003)

This first solo outing for Queen Mab pianist Marilyn Lerner takes a somewhat different form, but you will have to be very attentive in order not to miss it. The most surprising piece in that regard is "Codec Moment," where a cheap dictaphone microphone is placed across the room, providing a distorted image that interferes with the one captured by the two hi-fi mics placed inside the piano. And truth be told, it is also the only track where Lebrasseur's touch is easily witnessed. Most of everything else will be lost on a regular living room stereo system. Her background in jazz and Klezmer resurface at various points in the course of these short pieces, giving her more abstract improvisations and experimentations a human face. She performs "La Boxe" ("Boxing") with her fingers knocking on the frame of the instrument while keeping the sustain pedal depressed. But in the other pieces she plays the piano, letting her very personal language unfold. (Francois Couture)|