Pianist Joey Chang had a horse mask with him upon entering The Juilliard School years ago. He would occasionally wear it around the practice rooms until he was asked to stop, but he hasn’t fully given up the accoutrement. In the summer of 2017, while he was at the Banff Centre focusing on improvisation, he made a last minute switch from performing J.S. Bach to improvising while wearing his horse head. And now, he brings this tradition of improvisation and absurdity to the House Music series, performing his frenzied new year improvisation, Horseplay, while wearing his mask.

Chang began working with Metropolis Ensemble during the fall of 2020, when he and his frequent collaborator Katherine Kyu Hyeon Lim performed as part of Free Assembly. Together, they composed and performed 15-second, miniature pieces to accompany animations made by Marie Lavie. For Chang, this experience was unique—it’s not often he’s created such short segments of music. Since that initial performance, both artists have continued their work with Metropolis through the House Music series.

Horseplay is a way of reckoning with 2020 for Chang. Musically, it’s chaotic and untethered: He thrashes at the keys of the piano, crashing between haywire melodies and frantic use of his tuning hammer. His musical practice is influenced by the vast history of Black experimentalism and free improvisation, looking to artists like Cecil Taylor for inspiration, and exists at the intersection of this history and his own classical training. He hopes to convey the ridiculousness of the past year through the uninhibited sound of Horseplay: For him, hardship shouldn’t be met with more hardship, rather, it should be met with a little more of the absurd. -- Vanessa Ague

 
Episode: 76
Date: January 7, 2021
Artist: Joey Chang
Instrumentation: Piano
Work: "Horse Play (Improvisation)"
Composer: Joey Chang
 

More from House Music