‘sun and moon’ - the 6th single in the Song Athletics singles series is from pianist
 Sarah Nicolls.



Sarah Nicolls is a pianist who has spent her life stretching what’s possible on the
piano. This single is the culmination of a lifetime exploring the whole instrument
and eventually making her own piano to do that more easily. In ‘sun and moon’
the sounds come from Sarah’s ‘Inside-Out Piano’ and a sampled version which
will be soon released as a virtual software instrument with Song Athletics.
‘This track is all sounds from the piano, with some delay and reverb. The more
unusual sounds are made using the inside of the piano directly - which my
upcoming Inside-Out Piano Virtual Instrument features heavily - muted strings,
magnets, bow, plucks, gently hitting the bass strings with a timpani mallet. This is
the first ever track where I’ve used real and virtual pianos - the same thing
recorded and played in two different ways - one direct, physical, acoustic and
one through being recorded and then performed via software on a keyboard. One is present, reverberant, resonant in its wood right in front of the mic and the other is all through effects, delays, echoes, ephemeral, imagined to some
extent. They are as one but in different reverbs.’ – Sarah Nicolls

About Sarah Nicolls

Sarah won the British Contemporary Piano Competition in 2000 and went on to
regularly broadcast and premiere concertos with London Sinfonietta, the
Philharmonia, BBC commissions, PRSF New Music Biennial and Matthew Herbert’s
20 Pianos project. She’s been an Artist-in-Residence with Southbank Centre and
Artangel in Iceland. She formed a band with Mira Calix and David Sheppard,
putting out an EP on Warp Records.
Sarah is now working towards building a lightweight piano with the astonishing
world-leading structural engineer Neil Thomas and his company Atelier One, who
have worked on structures including World Building of the Year ‘Gardens by the
Bay’ in Singapore. This is funded by Innovate UK’s Creative Catalyst award.