"In the hands of Sophie Agnel, the piano is a percussion orchestra, a string instrument, a tone generator. Of all the improvising pianists to have incorporated post-Cageian extensions and preparations into their language, few have taken it as far as Agnel. She's a master of playing inside the piano, deploying various tools and techniques to sound the strings and frame, but what's remarkable is how fluidly she's integrated this with her keyboard work."
"Sam Williams's recent short film No End captures the French musician up close. Manipulating the sustain pedal, she has rubber balls dancing across the strings to create a dissonant music box jangle. A cut and she's placing plastic cups inside the piano, adding a fricative quality to the deep harmonic drone she produces by slowly sweeping a metal file across the strings."
Sophie Agnel treats the piano as a percussion orchestra, a string instrument and a tone generator, erasing boundaries between frame and keys. She routinely plays inside the piano, using rubber balls, plastic cups, files and other implements alongside conventional keyboard technique. Film documentation shows her manipulating sustain, creating dissonant music-box jangles and deep harmonic drones through slow, tactile gestures. Her approach combines rigour, sensitivity and continual experimentation, driven by a principle that finding new things and taking risks are essential to music. She has recorded solo albums, released recent live sets, collaborated widely and is now recovering from a brain tumour.
Read at The Wire Magazine - Adventures In Modern Music
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