Pieter De Graaf

At the start of his career, he blossomed as a keen talent who could adapt all kinds of styles – pop, jazz, classical – down to the most complex theory and techniques. That brought him on the path of artists such as Colin Benders – with his Kyteman Orchestra – and Wouter Hamel, with whom he toured all over the world. After a period of creative and physical toil, Pieter had to reinvent his entire approach and technique of piano playing. The records he made from that point on called for a different approach. After the new beginning captured on Fermata, the daring adventure that was the follow up Equinox, his EP Home captures the return to natural pastures: feeling at home within a space, but also within one’s own body and mind. This time around, Pieter chose to compose a handful of the songs behind the grand piano. During the live project Extemporization, a 10-hour improvisation concert in the Great Hall of TivoliVredenburg in 2021, he rekindled his love for the grand piano. “With a piano the strings are stretched upright and the sound returns directly to your face. But with a grand piano the strings are stretched horizontally, and the sound therefore dissipates a little more into space. A piano also makes the space feel smaller and more covered, being hidden behind the piano in your own space, and with a grand piano you look over it and therefore out in the open.”