Kelly Moran

Pianist, composer, producer

“sweeping,” “softhearted but steel-skinned.” —The New York Times

“tender without sacrificing rigor or heft” —Pitchfork

Over the past decade, Moran has challenged the piano's traditional, classically-imposed school of thought with a more contemporary, experimental approach. Her latest release, Moves in the Field, explores the tension between technical precision and emotional reverie using the Yamaha Disklavier, a digital descendant of the player piano. The album, her second with Warp Records, has been praised as “sweeping, softhearted but steel-skinned” (The New York Times), and for its technical prowess that is “tender without sacrificing rigor or heft” (Pitchfork). Moves in the Field meditates on human and technical limitations, presenting itself as a personal, exuberant work of humanity versus the machine, technicality versus musicality, and gliding between two worlds with elegance and mastery.

Moran's most recent album Moves in the Field (Warp Records) moves away from the prepared piano techniques which defined earlier works like 2017’s Bloodroot and instead exists in a sphere somewhat similar to her 2018 Warp debut Ultraviolet, this time placing her instrument in a dimension more isolated and inward. Referring to a series of skating rudiments, the title Moves in the Field reflects the intense practice Moran put into becoming an even more masterful pianist when paired with an impossibly perfect technical partner: the Disklavier, the 21st century descendent to the player piano.

An accomplished and sought-after composer, Moran has collaborated with artists including Oneohtrix Point Never, FKA Twigs, Margaret Leng Tan, Kelsey Lu, and Yves Tumor. As a soloist, Moran has explored a variety of extended piano techniques through her critically-acclaimed records Bloodroot and Ultraviolet. Moran is a Yamaha Artist and is based in New York.