<![CDATA[Current Dissonance: Noises of 2022]]>https://www.currentdissonance.com/s/2022https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!-GoE!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8ff53374-9ec5-41bf-9c8c-0be90c2b9eb6_1280x1280.pngCurrent Dissonance: Noises of 2022https://www.currentdissonance.com/s/2022SubstackWed, 08 Apr 2026 12:00:34 GMT<![CDATA[Noise #61]]>https://www.currentdissonance.com/p/noise-61https://www.currentdissonance.com/p/noise-61Sat, 31 Dec 2022 00:30:53 GMTDear Friends,

Today, Friday, December 30, 2022, GhanaWeb featured the article: We need peace in 2023 more than ever- UN Secretary-General.

Here’s my reaction, as improvised solo piano, to that article:

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]]><![CDATA[Noise #60]]>https://www.currentdissonance.com/p/noise-60-98dhttps://www.currentdissonance.com/p/noise-60-98dTue, 27 Dec 2022 23:20:17 GMTDear Friends,

Today, Tuesday, December 27, 2022, The Athletic published the article: Infrastructure, colonialism and know-how: When will an East African team qualify for the World Cup?

Here’s my reaction to that article as improvised piano:

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]]><![CDATA[Noise #59]]>https://www.currentdissonance.com/p/noise-59https://www.currentdissonance.com/p/noise-59Fri, 23 Dec 2022 23:21:14 GMTDear Friends,

Today, Friday, December 23, 2022, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation published the article: Nightmare before Christmas: Flights, power, roads affected as bad weather hits Canada coast to coast.

Here’s my reaction to that article as improvised piano:

Thanks as always for listening—and stay warm!

Michael

(Noise #59 by Michael Gallant. Improvised and recorded in New York City. Copyright 2022 Gallant Music LLC. All Rights Reserved.)

]]><![CDATA[Noise #58]]>https://www.currentdissonance.com/p/noise-58https://www.currentdissonance.com/p/noise-58Mon, 19 Dec 2022 20:25:33 GMTDear Friends,

Today, Monday, December 19, Haaretz featured the article: Cotton From Prehistoric Pakistan Found in 7,200-year-old Village in Israel.

Here’s my reaction to that article, as improvised solo piano:

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]]><![CDATA[Noise #57]]>https://www.currentdissonance.com/p/noise-57https://www.currentdissonance.com/p/noise-57Wed, 14 Dec 2022 03:41:00 GMTDear Friends,

Today, Tuesday, December 13, The New York Times featured the article: For U.S. Museums With Looted Art, the Indiana Jones Era Is Over.

Here’s my reaction to that article, as improvised solo piano:

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]]><![CDATA[Noise #56]]>https://www.currentdissonance.com/p/noise-56https://www.currentdissonance.com/p/noise-56Mon, 12 Dec 2022 20:36:19 GMTDear Friends,

Today, Monday, December 12, 2022, The New York Times featured the article: Major Fusion Energy Breakthrough to Be Announced by Scientists.

Here’s my reaction to that article as improvised solo piano:

Thanks as always for reading, listening, and sharing the noise,

Michael Gallant

(Noise #56 by Michael Gallant. Improvised and recorded on December 12, 2022, in New York City. Copyright 2022 Gallant Music LLC. All Rights Reserved.)

]]><![CDATA[Noise #55 for Solo Piano]]>https://www.currentdissonance.com/p/noise-55-for-solo-pianohttps://www.currentdissonance.com/p/noise-55-for-solo-pianoSat, 29 Oct 2022 02:19:37 GMTDear Friends,

I’ve missed you this last month. There have been some difficult losses recently—and while working on Current Dissonance normally feels cathartic and healing, I’ve found it challenging to put fingers to keys during this time.

Today, though, something feels different.

I’m thrilled to share a new Noise improv with you, the first of many more to come. I hope you enjoy listening. And thank you as always for being part of Current Dissonance.

Today, Friday, October 28, 2022, The New York Times published an amazing interactive feature entitled The New World: Envisioning Life After Climate Change. The piece describes (and visualizes) global shifts that are happening in increasingly unsubtle ways—migration, public health, energy, agriculture, equity, and much more. Please take a minute to read; it’s well worth the time.

I improvised Noise #55 as a reflection of this article and the evolutions it describes.

Current Dissonance is a reader-supported project. Please consider sharing this post with friends:

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Thanks as always for reading, listening, and sharing the noise,

Michael Gallant

(Noise #55 by Michael Gallant. Improvised and recorded on October 28, 2022, in New York City. Copyright 2022 Gallant Music LLC. All Rights Reserved.)

]]><![CDATA[Noise #54 for Solo Piano]]>https://www.currentdissonance.com/p/a-hymn-for-syrianshttps://www.currentdissonance.com/p/a-hymn-for-syriansThu, 15 Sep 2022 02:20:29 GMTDear Friends,

Today, Wednesday, September 14, 2022, Al Jazeera featured the article: Syria could return ‘to larger-scale fighting’, UN warns.

Noise #54 is meant to channel sorrow and prayers for Syrian lives that have been broken and broken again; the music’s cyclical structure reflects a conflict that seems to spin in perpetual, grinding motion.

Syria’s civil war is 11 years old. New headlines and life’s pummeling force make it easy to forget. I hope this music can help even a few of us remember.

Learn more about Syrian refugees via the UN Refugee Agency.

Current Dissonance is a reader-supported project. Please consider sharing this post with friends:

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Thanks as always for reading, listening, and sharing the noise,

Michael Gallant

(Noise #54 by Michael Gallant. Improvised and recorded on September 14, 2022, in New York City. Copyright 2022 Gallant Music LLC. All Rights Reserved.)

]]><![CDATA[Noise #53 for Solo Piano]]>https://www.currentdissonance.com/p/noise-53-for-solo-pianohttps://www.currentdissonance.com/p/noise-53-for-solo-pianoThu, 01 Sep 2022 03:09:05 GMTDear Friends,

Today, Wednesday, August 31, 2022, The New York Times featured an article entitled U.S. Life Expectancy Falls Again in ‘Historic’ Setback.

The fall in life expectancy is heartbreaking, particularly given its outsized representation amongst indigenous communities. My improvisations in Noise #53 channel some themes referenced in the article, o…

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]]><![CDATA[Noise #52 for Solo Piano]]>https://www.currentdissonance.com/p/noise-52-for-solo-pianohttps://www.currentdissonance.com/p/noise-52-for-solo-pianoFri, 26 Aug 2022 01:56:31 GMTDear Friends,

Today, Thursday, August 25, 2022, The New York Times featured the article: Russia Announces Big Expansion of Its Depleted Forces.

To me, Noise #52 channels the article’s themes of billowing uncertainty, the unnatural sense that things are expanding when they should be contracting—and extreme skepticism that more fuel will somehow equal less…

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]]><![CDATA[Noise #51 for Solo Piano]]>https://www.currentdissonance.com/p/noise-51-for-solo-pianohttps://www.currentdissonance.com/p/noise-51-for-solo-pianoThu, 18 Aug 2022 03:15:51 GMTDear Friends,

Today, Wednesday, August 17, The Guardian published the article: ‘I don’t see justice in this war’: Russian soldier exposes rot at core of Ukraine invasion.

The article tells how a young Russian ex-paratrooper published a 141-page day-to-day account of his experiences helping to invade Ukraine—then fled Russia to avoid arrest and persecutio…

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]]><![CDATA[Noise #50 for Solo Piano]]>https://www.currentdissonance.com/p/noise-50-for-solo-pianohttps://www.currentdissonance.com/p/noise-50-for-solo-pianoFri, 12 Aug 2022 01:26:49 GMTDear Friends,

Today, Thursday, August 11, 2022, Nasdaq / Reuters published the article: 'Freedom, happiness, opportunities': Afghan women learn to swim, drive in Australia.

When playing Noise #50, I kept in mind the exhilaration of learning to zip through the water, the undercurrent of fear many new swimmers must channel into controlled action as they venture deep and learn new strokes. The trauma that led the Afghan women mentioned in the article to flee their country in the first place. And the opening of vast possibility I hope those women are feeling now.

Here’s what I came up with:

Learn more about refugee crises and how to help via the UN Refugee Agency.

Current Dissonance is a reader-supported project. Please consider sharing this post with friends:

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Thanks as always for reading, listening, and sharing the noise,

Michael Gallant

(Noise #50 by Michael Gallant. Improvised and recorded on August 11, 2022, in New York City. Copyright 2022 Gallant Music LLC. All Rights Reserved.)

]]><![CDATA[Noise #49 for Solo Piano]]>https://www.currentdissonance.com/p/noise-49-for-solo-pianohttps://www.currentdissonance.com/p/noise-49-for-solo-pianoThu, 04 Aug 2022 23:50:41 GMTDear Friends,

Today, Thursday, August 4, 2022, JAPAN-Forward featured the article: From Food Waste to Beer: Bread Crusts and Coffee Beans Transformed into Delicious Brews.

As I improvised Noise #49, I tried to keep in mind the rising energy and motion I associate with the idea of upcycling—a.k.a. using waste materials to make something high-quality and u…

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]]><![CDATA[Noise #48 for Solo Piano]]>https://www.currentdissonance.com/p/noise-48-for-solo-pianohttps://www.currentdissonance.com/p/noise-48-for-solo-pianoFri, 29 Jul 2022 23:39:22 GMTDear Friends,

Today, Friday, July 29, 2022, Minnesota’s Star Tribune featured the article: Hunt of a lifetime: Shooting every duck in the world (with a camera).

Between invasions and floods, inflation and fires, there’s a lot of troubling stuff in the news right now. I think that’s why this particular article inspired me to record Noise #48.

Especially against a dark backdrop, it’s wonderful to learn how wildlife biologist Gary Kramer devoted his career to shooting pictures of ducks around the world, and that his work is now collected in the “540-page hardcover opus, Waterfowl of the World.”

War and climate change are horrible. Ducks are awesome. And that’s what today’s improv is all about. I hope you enjoy listening.

Wishing you a peaceful weekend,

Michael Gallant

(Noise #48 by Michael Gallant. Improvised and recorded on July 29, 2022, in New York City. Copyright 2022 Gallant Music LLC. All Rights Reserved.)

]]><![CDATA[Noise #47 for Solo Piano]]>https://www.currentdissonance.com/p/noise-47-for-solo-pianohttps://www.currentdissonance.com/p/noise-47-for-solo-pianoTue, 26 Jul 2022 03:01:53 GMTDear Friends,

Today, Monday, July 25, Smithsonian Magazine featured the article: How Indigenous Sea Gardens Produced Massive Amounts of Food for Millennia.

This was a fascinating article, and made me look at current issues of food security and global hunger in new ways. While playing Noise #47, I thought about wonder and discovery, millennia-old history…

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]]><![CDATA[Noise #46 for Solo Piano]]>https://www.currentdissonance.com/p/noise-46-for-solo-pianohttps://www.currentdissonance.com/p/noise-46-for-solo-pianoThu, 21 Jul 2022 03:25:00 GMTDear Friends,

Today, Wednesday, July 20, 2022, Rolling Stone featured the article: Pearl Jam Cancels Vienna Concert After Eddie Vedder’s Throat ‘Damaged’ From Europe’s Heat Wave.

What a weird, sad headline. And what a mess of dark inspiration to dig into while improvising Noise #46.

Pearl Jam is my favorite band. I grew up on Vs. and Vitology, interviewed Boom Gaspar for Keyboard magazine, and recorded my own covers of Go and Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town. Vedder will always be one of my musical heroes. I hope he returns to full voice and health very soon.

More troubling than a sickened idol, though, is the chain of events that hurt him. “Scientists have blamed climate change for the extreme heat wave now settling over Europe, which in turn has sparked wildfires in France (where one is twice the size of Paris) and Spain,” the Rolling Stone article says. The band’s official statement blames Vedder’s condition on dust and smoke from those fires.

His illness is one more piece of bizarre collateral damage from unchecked climate change. One more bit of evidence that human-caused environmental damage can touch anything—and even silence the music we love.

Noise #46 is a get-well card to both Vedder and the planet he and I and you share. It’s also a siphoning of rage that articles and improvs like this must exist in the first place.

Many thanks for reading, listening, and sharing the noise,

Michael Gallant

(Noise #46 by Michael Gallant. Improvised and recorded on July 20, 2022, in New York City. Copyright 2022 Gallant Music LLC. All Rights Reserved.)

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]]><![CDATA[Noise #45 for Solo Piano]]>https://www.currentdissonance.com/p/noise-45-for-solo-pianohttps://www.currentdissonance.com/p/noise-45-for-solo-pianoTue, 19 Jul 2022 00:22:13 GMTDear Friends,

Today, Monday, July 18, 2022, The Scotsman featured the article: Records set to be smashed as amber warning for extreme heat comes into force in Scotland.

It can be easy to dismiss warnings of extreme temperatures as whining—or to brush them off with a trite “just go to the beach!” But as one expert in the article states:

This isn’t like a l…

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]]><![CDATA[Noise #44 for Solo Piano]]>https://www.currentdissonance.com/p/noise-44-for-solo-pianohttps://www.currentdissonance.com/p/noise-44-for-solo-pianoFri, 15 Jul 2022 00:25:12 GMTDear Friends,

Today, Thursday, July 14, 2022, Australia’s The Age newspaper published the article: French Bastille Day celebrations place Ukraine and its allies centre stage.

As today is in fact Bastille Day, I used the French national anthem as the core of my improvisation. Strictly from a compositional standpoint, La Marseillaise includes iconic themes…

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]]><![CDATA[Noise #43 for Solo Piano]]>https://www.currentdissonance.com/p/noise-43-for-solo-pianohttps://www.currentdissonance.com/p/noise-43-for-solo-pianoWed, 13 Jul 2022 01:05:01 GMTDear Friends,

Today, Tuesday, July 12, 2022, the Baltimore Sun and the Indian Express published the AP article: NASA’s new telescope shows star death and dancing galaxies.

In turning that article into today’s improv, I tried to keep in mind the wonder and beauty of the James Webb Space Telescope images; the twists of time, space, and technology that allow us to see “a new, unprecedented 290 million-year-old view” of five galaxies and a black hole; the vastness of it all, and the bittersweet vertigo of how small our own world can feel in comparison.

Here’s what I came up with:

Many thanks for reading, listening, and sharing the noise,

Michael Gallant

(Noise #43 by Michael Gallant. Improvised and recorded on July 12, 2022, in New York City. Copyright 2022 Gallant Music LLC. All Rights Reserved.)

]]><![CDATA[Noise #42 for Solo Piano]]>https://www.currentdissonance.com/p/noise-42-for-solo-pianohttps://www.currentdissonance.com/p/noise-42-for-solo-pianoMon, 11 Jul 2022 19:36:08 GMTDear Friends,

Today, Monday, July 11, 2022, Nigeria’s Premium Times featured the opinion article: America is becoming a very bad movie without a Hollywood ending. I improvised Noise #42, below, as a musical reaction to that article.

On the surface, the article’s headline is absurd and funny—but the topics underneath are dark, immediate, and all too real.…

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