Marta Sanchez is a Spanish pianist and composer (not to be confused with the Spanish vocalist Marta Sánchez) who has been based in New York City since 2011. Along with touring and cutting albums in the quartet of David Murray and recording Unseparate as part of the Webber/Morris Big Band (issued last September), Sanchez has a handful of knockout releases as a leader and on April 17, she delivers For the Space You Left, her first solo album of prepared piano on LP (black or pink swirl), CD, and digital.
Long associated with Modern Classical kingpin John Cage and assorted subsequent avant-gardists, the prepared piano is given a fresh exploration through Sanchez’s distinctive, energetic approach. This striking collection includes nine compositions that shine through momentum and the expected cadences.
Marta Sanchez debuted as a leader in 2008 with Lunas, Soles & Elefantes, a trio set. She followed that up in 2011 with La Espiral Amarilla by her quartet. This album and her debut were cut for the Spanish Errabal label. She made a bigger splash in 2015 with Partenika, the first of three quintet sessions for Fresh Sounds; two years later, Danza Imposible was released, and then in 2019 came El Rayo de Luz.
In 2022, Sanchez assembled a new quintet (save for Roman Filiu, the alto saxophonist on her three prior sets for Fresh Sound) and recorded SAAM (Spanish American Art Museum) for the Whirlwind label, released as a 2LP set with three sides of music and one side an etching (copies are still available). For one track, this group expands to an octet.
Also in 2022, Sanchez joined the quartet of the great saxophonist and composer David Murray. In 2024, Francesca by the Murray quartet emerged on the Intakt label, and the same year, Sanchez returned to the trio configuration, recording Perpetual Void, also for Intakt. It was a busy stretch for Sanchez, as she contributed to a pair of albums by tenor saxophonist and composer Maria Grand, Altered Visions for Lilaila Records, and Anohin, a duo set for Biophilia Records.
With For the Space You Left, Sanchez has returned to solo works begun during a 2017 MacDowell artist’s residency that incorporated prepared piano. After the residency, her focus shifted to writing for groups of differing sizes. It wasn’t until the pandemic hit that Sanchez returned to solo writing, a fresh challenge with a different emotional heft.
She has explained that the MacDowell pieces were an attempt to overcome the fear of solo performance and described them as possessing a “quiet melancholy, fragility, and a raw openness.” Contrasting, the pandemic pieces, if also conceived in isolation, represent a deeper emotional intensity.
It can be enjoyable to attempt to ascertain from which period the individual pieces derive; in a few instances, titles like “Frost Bloom” and “Snowing in the Woods” provide clues, as Sanchez has mentioned that snowstorms occurred during the MacDowell residency. But it’s a far more enriching experience just to soak up the flowing energy of the work as it progresses.
The piano preps were altered to reduce the number of delays, and the result is a “live” intensity that’s quite pleasing. The distinctiveness of the prepared sounds is tangible but never jarring. In turn, it’s easy to grasp the jazz root throughout, even as the thrust is far from trad. Overall, these are gripping, life-affirming excursions that should please any fan of top-flight piano science, prepared or not.
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