In Plus or Minus, Ming Tsao develops a fascinating “serial machine” based on Karlheinz Stockhausen's composition Plus Minus – a complex system of musical permutations that restructures sound in surprising ways. Tsao transforms Stockhausen's original through strict serial rules, contrapuntal overlays and a sophisticated play with rhythmic shifts. Material from Stockhausen's Mantra is integrated in a fragmented, “negative” form – often recognisable fragments, but radically transformed. The result is a full-length work for two pianos and electronics that makes the highest demands both conceptually and technically.

The GrauSchumacher Piano Duo – long-standing specialists in contemporary piano music – perform this highly complex work with impressive precision and musical depth. Their many years of experience with Stockhausen's Mantra flow audibly into their interpretation of Plus or Minus. The close collaboration with the SWR Experimentalstudio also opens up extraordinary sonic dimensions: Vibration transmitters are mounted in both grand pianos, which use the acoustic sounding board or casting frame as loudspeakers. Acoustic piano playing merges with electronically generated sound spaces that consist solely of piano recordings and originate from the instrument itself. A vibrating, spatial cosmos unfolds along parametrically controlled timbres, detaching the music from any humanistic linearity and lending it a new, materialistic lyricism.

The album is complemented by Ming Tsao's Dritte Stimme zu Bachs zweistimmigen Inventionen [Third Voice to Bach's Two-Part Inventions]. This voice, which Tsao calls a “virus”, deliberately destabilises the harmonic balance of the originals. With sensitive sound design, Ulrika Davidsson and Joel Speerstra on the duo clavichord show that even Bach's seemingly monumental structures are fragile and open.

The “infected” texture thus creates a fascinating dialogue between tradition and disruption, between stability and fragility – an intense listening experience that sheds new light on familiar music.

An album that radically breaks with expectations, deconstructs historical references and challenges listening habits.