Richard Sears | "Appear to Fade"

Pianist and composer Richard Sears announces "Appear to Fade," unveiling a realm where the boundaries between jazz, ambient music, and tape music blur together.

Sears collaborated with Ari Chersky, who intervened in the project by editing and developing Sears’ improvisations and compositions, using magnetic tape loops and analog production tools, giving "Appear to Fade" its unique identity. While Richard played live, they built an archive of raw material: short compositions by Sears and improvisations directed by Chersky, which would later become "Appear to Fade." Over several months, the two edited down the archive, which Chersky then transformed into tape-loop samples. With a rich array of analog production tools and a penchant for unconventional tape-looping techniques, Chersky began collaging material together, in conversation with Sears, building out multi-layered soundscapes from Richard’s compositions and improvisations. Sears's performances flicker through the glistening textures and dark atmospheres of their shared musical imagination. The sounds of tape distortion, disintegration, and tape mechanics seamlessly integrate into these mosaic-compositions, intertwined with the raw acoustic piano.

The track titles offer glimpses into the influences and memories that shape Sears' musical landscape. "Manresa" echoes Richard's upbringing near the Northern California Santa Cruz coastline, evoking a sense of nostalgia and a deep connection to the natural world. The track "Tulev" pays homage to Estonian composer Toivo Tulev, with whom Richard studied choral composition, and whose music motivated some of the aesthetic aspirations driving this album. "Dolorous Interlude" alludes to Richard's previous album, "Disquiet," where Sears' use of musical space plays a prominent role. "Appear to Fade" also uniquely features the presence of the Una Corda, a one-of-a-kind keyboard instrument developed by David Klavins, known for its characteristically glassy and muted tone. "What I Meant to Say Was," the final track, is an unedited improvisation by Richard Sears on the Una Corda. This raw performance stands as a testament to Sears' spontaneous creative energy, offering a moment of pure expression amidst the mosaic assembly of the other tracks. In the final moments of a long recording day, Chersky said to Richard, "... now, just improvise a jazz standard!", to which Sears gave this performance.

The recordings for "Appear to Fade" took place weeks before Sears began transitioning from living in New York to moving to Paris. Richard attributes the turbulence and nostalgia felt in the album to the unsaid uncertainties he carried through this transitional moment. Since landing in Paris, Sears can often be heard performing electronically-rigged pianos and sample synthesizers, primarily in art galleries and non-traditional venues. In April of 2023, Sears presented a tape-loop sculptural work and two concerts at the Hatch Paris Gallery, where he continued to develop and refine the use of sampling and tape loops within his live set. The Poush art center in Paris will be presenting the first live preview of "Appear to Fade" on July 25th, 2023.

Figureight Records, under the curation of Shahzad Ismaily, will release "Appear to Fade" September 29. The album is Sears' first for the label and his fifth as a leader. Shahzad and Sears met in 2017 while performing with songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Sam Amidon and the legendary avant-garde jazz drummer Andrew Cyrille. Under Ismaily's direction, the label has cultivated a history of presenting artists who skillfully carve out a space that defies traditional genre classifications. "Appear to Fade" resides on the periphery of genres while remaining rooted in Sears' musical core, which he developed through years of playing with esteemed jazz musicians such as "Tootie" Heath, Billy Hart, Ravi Coltrane, and his contemporary collaborators, including Sam Gendel, Martin Nevin, and RJ Miller. Sears' first venture into acoustic-electric piano performance came through a collaboration with composer Ethan Braun, another artist on Figureight, who composed a concerto featuring electronic and sampled scores with improvised piano for Sears. The concerto premiered at The Shed (NYC) in the summer of 2019.