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Beat Without Byte

Simão Costa

Concert

The album explores the concept of pulse, cycles, beats, and repetitions as a process of homeostasis. It delves into the relationship between man and machine through the piano, celebrating both its percussion qualities and its potential for resonance through induction.
The second part of the album features echoes of music for dancing, possibly influenced by collaborations between Simão Costa and various choreographers over the past years.
BEAT WITHOUT BYTE – (un)learning Machine is the new album by pianist and composer Simão Costa, released by Cipsela Records. Divided into two parts, it explores a particular musical characteristic: the pulse. Cycles, beats, repetitions in a process of homeostasis; a regulating process through which an organism maintains its balance, characterized
by its stability and also its unpredictability.

In the first part, beats ferment from the struggle of frequencies with nearly identical amplitudes. The second part unfolds into echoes of music to dance to, perhaps shockwaves from the various collaborations of this musician with choreographers over the past years.

In this play, all sounds are acoustic, produced from piano strings and magnets placed upon them, and are captured from the vibrating air. All the album was recorded “from start to finish,” in a single take, without cuts or editing. Multiple points of meticulous observation of the instrument are drawn, reconciling new and old ways of exciting piano strings.

On one hand, the piano is celebrated as a percussion instrument, and on the other, its potential for resonance through induction is explored by causing the strings to vibrate without striking them.

The profound knowledge of the piano, passionately dedicated by Simão Costa, reveals a broader reflection on contemporary relationships between man and machine. Through the piano, the musician savors the mechanical and electromagnetic intricacies of both.