Ivesian Air by Walter Thompson & Maria-Angeles Cuevas
Ivesian Air - Album
Ivesian Air, is an improvised exploration inspired by Charles Ives’s Concord Sonata. Ives’ monumental work, composed between 1904 and 1915, traces the transcendental thought of American literary figures such as Emerson, Thoreau, and Hawthorne, blending dissonance, folk echoes, and inner visions.
We were particularly drawn to Emerson, the sonata’s first movement.
A philosopher of inner freedom, Ralph Waldo Emerson urged us to “hear the music of our own soul” and follow intuition as our only law.
In this piece, we didn’t attempt to illustrate Emerson, we let his spirit inhabit the sound: in its bursts, its silences, its raw intensity.
Like Ives, we believe that some music is not meant to be read, it is heard from within, and discovered through the act of playing.
Two pieces for voice and piano extend this impulse, where song meets breath, and silence becomes structure.
Charles Ives, an unclassifiable and visionary figure of American modernism, composed at night after working full-time at an insurance company. It’s said that he sometimes tested musical ideas by playing two different melodies on two pianos... in two separate rooms.
That paradoxical energy, at once wild, rigorous, and visionary, guided us throughout the recording.
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Pianomorphose
Maria Angeles Cuevas & Walter Thompson duo à deux pianos
Maria Angeles Cuevas et Walter Thompson forment un duo de pianos entièrement dédié à l’improvisation libre. Leur musique naît dans l’instant, sans partitions ni cadres fixes, guidée par l’écoute, le dialogue et l’inattendu. Ils partagent une approche commune inspirée par le langage du Soundpainting, un outil gestuel qui permet la composition en temps réelle. Chaque concert est une aventure sonore, une exploration vivante qui s’adapte à l’énergie du moment et du lieu. Leur duo trouve naturellement sa place sur les scènes ouvertes à l’expérimentation et à la musique vivante, offrant au public une
expérience unique et toujours renouvelée.
Pianomorphose
Maria Angeles Cuevas & Walter Thompson – Two-Piano Duo
Maria Angeles Cuevas and Walter Thompson form a piano duo entirely dedicated tofree improvisation. Their music emerges in the moment, without scores or fixed structures, guided by listening, dialogue, and the unexpected. They share a common approach inspired by the language of Soundpainting, a gestural tool that enables real-time composition.
Each concert is a sonic adventure, a living exploration that adapts to the energy of the moment and the space. Their duo naturally finds its place on stages open to experimentation
credits
released October 31, 2025
Maria-Angeles Cuevas - Piano
Walter Thompson - Piano
Recorded at Le Conservatoire de Musique de Nyon, Switzerland
March 23, 2025
Audio/Mixing/Editing/Mastering: Julien Michel
Released on I Am Them. Records © 2025
