"Painted Pyramids" has been commissioned by the Ensemble Champ d'Action who will first perform the work in the fall of 2009 conducted by Jaan Bossier (probably) with Yutaka Oya (sure) at the piano.
The work is a comment on my solo piano piece "Pyramids in Siberia" which I composed back in 1989. Since long I had the intention to extend the original music and this occasion seemed a good opportunity to do so. There are (almost) no changes in the original piano part, I just added notes and enriched the instrumental colours with the other instruments and the live-electronics which are actually very simple, because I use (only) three ringmodulators. "Pyramids" is a piece with many harmonics in the piano, and those harmonics are somehow amplified in "Painted Pyramids", just like the final (extremely fast) toccata is made even more virtuoso with the harmonical as well as coloristic additions.
I dedicate this score to my ex-pupil and highly talented composer Annelies Van Parys, who became a friend.