Pianist, composer, engineer, and producer, Kelly Moran takes pride in trying to “obfuscate exactly what the piano sounds like. The whole point is to make it sound different.” (Tiny Mix Tapes) Moran, on her latest record, Ultraviolet (Warp Records), has also found a delicate balance of improvisation and structure in her expansive compositions. It'd be a reductionist approach to label her work merely minimalist or ambient music because it's also melodic cascades of these studiously prepared acoustic sources combined with synth wizardry, all washing over the listener in hypnotic and fascinating waves. The music is mainly produced and engineered by Moran herself - with a little help on this latest record from a friend, one Daniel Lopatin (aka Oneohtrix Point Never.) 

Kelly Moran has brought her baggies of screws and bolts, along with other tools, to expand the insides of our piano into a new sonic palette of thoughtful and provocative sounds - somewhere in the realm of a gamelan meets hammered dulcimer or qanun. She performs works mostly from Ultraviolet, in-studio AND plays an early show (12PM start) on Saturday, Dec. 8 as part of Hospital Fest at Knockdown Center. -Caryn Havlik 

Watch the session here: