Dust 3 by Peter Chilvers

Curious Music is delighted to present Dust 3, the third and concluding EP in Peter Chilvers’ evocative Dust series.

Dust 3 gracefully extends the contemplative soundscapes of its predecessors, offering an even greater depth of exploration into the abstract and reflective.

Chilvers masterfully interweaves improvised piano with subtle electronic textures, creating a soundscape of elegance and subtlety that immerses the listener in a meditative experience.

The two expansive tracks on Dust 3 deepen the listener’s journey, expanding on the themes introduced in the earlier EPs while carving new paths into uncharted emotional and sonic territory.

While this third EP serves as a reflective pause in the Dust journey, it signals the continuation of a broader creative exploration—one that promises ongoing evolution and growth in ways yet to be discovered.

As with the first EPs, Dust 3 is also available in fully immersive Binaural Headphone and Dolby Atmos mixes.

The Dust series showcases Chilvers' distinctive style, characterized by a blend of improvised piano, electronic textures, and occasional upright bass. Notably influenced by his two decades of collaboration with Brian Eno, Dust explores innovative music manipulation techniques.

Dust represents a milestone for Curious, marking not only Peter Chilvers' debut with us, but also our first Dolby Atmos release as well. It signifies our accelerating interest in pursuing creative projects that develop organically, with the "launch" representing more the beginning of exploration rather than the conclusion. Dust is not static; it will be an evolving, multi-disciplinary experience, growing and transforming over time, aligned with the creative impulse as opposed to a schedule.

Peter Chilvers talks about Dust

The piano
I’ve been playing the piano for nearly fifty years, improvising on it is second nature to me. I’m fascinated by the possibilities of extending it both sonically and electronically. The final two tracks (Life Finding Form and In Hidden Places) are essentially piano sextets, I love the space that creates.

Themes
I’m intruiged by processes in nature ; from the ways galaxies or weather systems form to the way surfaces decay or are overrun with moss. That’s always at the back of my mind when I make music this way, I’m looking to give notes life after they leave my fingers. These ideas are brilliantly reflected in the visual representation that the artist Petulia Mattioli created for this project.

Eno influence
For nearly two decades, I’ve been developing software with Brian Eno to perform many exotic types of music manipulation. While Brian’s focus has been on generative music, my main interest has been on live improvisation. During the lockdown, I began developing a set of tools with this in mind ; I’ll improvise an idea, then continue to improvise as my laptop echoes back variations on the idea.

Most of the tracks across Dust involved this process in some form. Often I’d take the initial pieces and shape them further, sometimes improvising additional layers, other times, particularly on the later tracks in the series, I’d simply cut sections.

Dolby Atmos
One of the great joys for me in this process was creating Dolby Atmos mixes, which expand out into three dimensions. I’ve mixed a number of Brian’s multi-speaker sound installations in the past, and it’s a natural fit for more ‘landscaped’ music.

Particularly with the longer instrumentals, I’ve tried to sit the listener in the middle of a sea of sound - this seems far more natural to me than listening to performers on a stage.

About Peter Chilvers
Peter is a musician and software designer, best known for creating the iOS applications Bloom, Trope, Scape and Reflection with Brian Eno, touring with Karl Hyde (Underworld), and for his collaborations with Tim Bowness.

Since 2006, he has worked as a musical and technical assistant to Brian Eno on projects including the soundtracks to The Lovely Bones and Spore, album collaborations with David Byrne and the releases Small Craft on a Milk Sea, Drums Between the Bells and Lux.

He worked as Assistant Producer on Eno’s 2016 release The Ship, for which he also helped develop the multi-speaker installation which has been shown in many countries. His software has played a behind-the-scenes role in many of Eno’s recent albums.

He has played keyboards live with Brian Eno, first at his Acropolis concert with Roger Eno in 2021, and then for the acclaimed SHIPS tour across Europe with the Baltic Sea Philharmonic in October 2023. A spacious and introspective approach to the piano is at the heart of much of Peter's music, expanded by orchestrated electronic textures.

peterchilvers.com
petuliamattioli.com
curiousmusic.komi.io

curiousmusic.komi.io