Piano Magic began to take formation in London, Summer 1996 - essentially a bedroom-bound 4 track hobby of Glen Johnson and Dick Rance. Fascinated by the "revolving door" membership policy of projects like This Mortal Coil and The 6ths - members being invited to join and leave at will - they decided to adopt it on trial. A friend of Johnson's, Raechel Leigh, was asked to sing on two tracks, "I Have Loved A Suicide" and "Wrong French." Another friend, Dominic Chennell, also participated in early instrumental tracks with Johnson and Rance. Unable to commit to a regular recording schedule, Piano Magic didn't record together for several months though Johnson remixed and revamped the Raechel Leigh tracks at home alone that Autumn. Hazel Burfitt, again, a friend, sang vocals on three new Johnson-penned tracks, "Speed," "Non-Fiction" and "To Be Swished" - the latter, plus the Leigh compositions being compiled as a demo tape and sent to Che Records.
This resulted in the band's first record, the "Wrong French" 12" being released on the label's "i" imprint that November. The record was awarded joint Single Of The Week in Melody Maker. Between then and the band's next single release, "Wintersport," in March 1997, the band, played selective live dates with the likes of Mogwai, Third Eye Foundation, Amp, Pram, Six By Seven and Plone. The line-up and set metamorphosised throughout the concerts - the band members and songs never being the same twice. By the time of their third single, "For Engineers," on the esteemed Wurlitzer Jukebox label, Piano Magic were down to Johnson and Chennell who contributed a side each. The record sold out in a week, going on to an immediate re-pressing. It is now one of their rarest collectibles. Piano Magic's debut album, "Popular Mechanics" was released on "i" in early October 1997, picking up regular plays on late night indie radio such as John Peel's BBC Radio One show and inspired enthusiastic reviews in magazines in the UK and abroad. True to form, by the release of the album, the band had morphed again to include Johnson plus three American friends - Alexander Perls (later to form Icebreaker International), Jen Adam and Ezra Feinberg. Perls had placed an ad in the classified section of Melody Maker looking for band members; Johnson had seen it and replied. Adam and Feinberg had been Perls' fellow students at the prestigous Oberlin college in Ohio which specialised in musical tuition and were on vacation in England. A new 4-track 12" EP, "The Fun Of The Century," was recorded in part by these members in November of 1997, in a garden shed studio in Mornington Crescent, London. Intended for a release on Wurlitzer Jukebox until the label's owner, Keith Jenkins, decided to call it a day, the record finally surfaced in May 1998 on the Piao! Label (UK), run by the promoters who had given Piano Magic their first concert 18 months before. By now, the band had almost perfected the formula of recording in different styles, for different labels with different personnel. Side 2 of the record was recorded by Johnson and Martin Cooper in Nottingham with the mischievous intention of sounding nothing like Side 1.
The same month, Piano Magic, by now made up of Johnson, Charles Wyatt (another American, formerly of the Che band, Dart), Matt Simpson (later to work with Icebreaker as "Simon Brake"), Chris Ovenden and Paul Tornbohm went on to play a couple of dates with Low on their Summer UK tour. A collaborative single between Low and Transient Waves, "Sleep At The Bottom," was born of the tour and released in October on Rocket Girl. The record was recorded in the studio where one of Johnson's major inspirations, Disco Inferno, had recorded their earliest work, Cazimi, with the same engineer, Charlie Mackintosh. The latter part of 1998 saw a bunch of releases from the Magic camp, including a Bliss Out Series album-length single for San Francisco's Darla label. The band had slimmed down to Johnson, Wyatt and Simpson by now and recorded the two track ode to the sea in Simpson's basement bedroom in Gospel Oak, London over a three month period. Lucy Gulland, the girlfriend of Chris Ovenden, supplied the vocal on "A Trick Of The Sea."
The fledgling French indie, Debut, released a split single between Piano Magic an Icebreaker in August '98 (track - "French Mittens"). Perhaps exhausted by numbers, Johnson went solo for the recording of "Music For Annahbird" (Bad Jazz) and "Music For Rolex" (Lissy's), writing and recording all the material himself. The music for both had become minimalist, romantic and entirely electronic. Keen to make a mark for Piano Magic in 1999, Johnson enlisted a close and reliable friend, John Cheves, to play guitar in the band and from an advertisement in Notting Hill's Music Exchange recruited Miguel Marin on drums. Marin had previously played with a successful indie group, Sr Chinarro, in his hometown of Seville, Spain. Paul Tornbohm re-joined the band for a few concerts including the Rebound festival in Haarlem, Holland in March where the band also recorded a radio session of their set for VPRO, later to be released in the "Mort Aux Vaches" series on Staalplaat. By April, Tornbohm had left to work on his own band but was quickly replaced by a friend of a friend, a Canadian, Gabe McDonough. The line-up played again with Low and Hefner amongst others over Summer before heading to France to play the Oblique Summer Nights festival in Nevers. Drawing the short straw, the band played early on a Sunday afternoon to a venue only a third full. Their huge video backdrop of white clouds crossing a blue sky gave the impression they were playing at the edge of the world. Two days later, they were playing the same set in a small but packed pub in a Tours backstreet. It was to be one of their best concerts. On their return to England, alongside Gnac, State River Widening, Kirk Lake and Fuxa, Piano Magic played a Rocket Girl Records Night at the HQ Club in Camden, London before again supporting Hefner at the Jazz Café just down the street.
The two bands, though sonically miles apart, got along well and liked the perversity of offering Hefner's audience something a little more obtuse. The second Piano Magic album, "Low Birth Weight," featuring guest appearances from The Wisdom Of Harry's Pete Astor, ISAN, Icebreaker and State River Widening's David Shepphard was released in May 1999 on the Rocket Girl label with tracks recorded again in Simpson's bedroom studio, Johnson's own home in Archway and London Martin Cooper's basement in Nottingham. Cooper had engineered demo tapes by Johnson's previous bands as far back as 1992. Another Nottingham friend from this period, Caroline Potter, sang on three tracks alongside Raechel Leigh -herself, a former Nottingham resident. The album's closing track, "Waking Up" was a cover version of a track by one of Johnson's major inspirations, Disco Inferno, who had originally been signed to Cheree, Che's previous incarnation. Rocket Girl, itself, was a new independent label founded by Vinita Joshi, a co-founder of Cheree. A single, "There's No Need For Us To Be Alone" featuring the words and vocals of Darren Hayman of Hefner, was recorded quickly at Tardis Studios, Hoxton Square capitalising on ancient analogue recording equipment and the band's new, raw live sound. A third track, recognisable as "Kingfisher" (from the "Mort Aux Vaches" CD, later released on Staalplaat) featuring Sue Tompkins from Glasgow's Life Without Buildings on vocals was archived without release. The single was released in October 1999. The single1s two tracks were remixed for a 12" on Berlin1s Morr Music label by Ensemble, ISAN, Opiate and Future 3 and released in April of the following year. Through a journalist friend in France, Piano Magic were introduced to the Acetone label who ran a limited edition singles club in Tours. The records were on clear vinyl, limited to 200 copies and came in a sleeve which, linked with all the other singles club sleeves, made one big picture. "Amongst The Books, An Angel," recorded some months before in Nottingham with Cooper as engineer and Leigh on vocals again was released on the club in September 1999.
A small percentage of the sleeves did not adhere to the label's generic design and instead featured a sketch of the cathedral in Tours, printed on tracing paper. Again, this is one of the band's most sought after records. At the beginning of 2000, a Piano Magic remix of Ma Cherie For Painting's "Fordt" appeared as a b-side on the Dutch Bottrop Boy label and the cult Geman electronic label, Morr Music, released a remix EP, "Panic Amigo" which found Future 3, ISAN, Ensemble and Opiate remixing two tracks from the previous Rocket Girl single. In Feburary, the band went into Woodbine Street Studios in Leamington Spa to record their 3rd album with John Rivers. Rivers had been chosen for his work with Dead Can Dance on their "Serpent's Egg" album and Felt's "Forever Breathes The Lonely Word" - favourites of the band. Recorded over 5 days, "Artists' Rifles" was released on Rocket Girl in May with an official launch concert at Under Solo in London supported by Life Without Buildings. The album itself was impossible to cleanly pigeonhole, utilising a kind of baroque pop aesthetic whilst at the same time paying tribute to the WW1 poets. Faced with such an aesthetic contradiction, most reviewers were confused and sat on the fence but the record became the band1s biggest seller and paved the way to a bigger, more mature Piano Magic sound. In June, the band, augmented by yet another new bassist, Al Steer, headed out to mainland Europe to play well-received concerts in Brussels, Hamburg, Dresden, Berlin, Nuremburg and Munich. Audiences outside of the UK were becoming gradually much more responsive to PM's music so the band reciprocated by arranging a schedule of dates in France, Spain and Germany for the remainder of 2000. The band recorded a session for John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show in June and it was aired in July. The tracks were "The Return Of...," "Milkteeth," "The Index" and "Password." The band had also recorded a cover of the Modern Lovers' "Hospital" in the session but scrapped it, unhappy with the rushed, live take. In August, Jerome Tcherneyan, a Frenchman living in London, joined the band supplementing with percussion and electronics. At the end of November, Piano Magic set off to Spain for a tour that took in Madrid, Barcelona, Cadiz, Grenada, Valencia, Zaragoza, Seville and Vigo tour managed by Andy Jarman, the man who'd been the tour manager during The House Of Love's legendary break-up tour. At the end of the tour, Cheves left the band and the remaining members - Johnson, Marin, Steer and Tcherneyan - recorded tracks for an EP to be released early in 2001 for the Spanish label, Acuarela (home to Mus, Migala, Sr Chinarro). The "I Came to Your Party Dressed As A Shadow" EP was recorded in Johnson's East London flat onto digital 8 track - the band's first home recordings in over a year. Angéle David-Guillou provides the spoken vocals to the title track and Johnson adds a long narrative dissection of the Spanish tour to "The Drowning Of St Christopher." Another home recording was made in January 2001 with Quentin Stoltzfus from Mazarin providing the vocal. "Shot Through The Fog" featured on the Rocket Girl compilation, released in April later that year.

Also in January, Piano Magic were contacted by Lola Films, Spain on behalf of the film director, Bigas Luna. Luna was in the process of completing a new film, "Son De Mar" and was keen for Piano Magic to compose and play the score. They happily accepted. Ideas for the film were recorded at Tcherneyan's in Hackney, London but the final score and soundtrack were recorded in February at Woodbine St Studios with John Rivers by Johnson, Marin and Tcherneyan with James Topham guesting on viola. During these first few months of 2001, the band began talking to 4AD about a deal incorporating the film soundtrack (to be released as a mini-album) and an album "proper " for release later that year. PM also signed a publishing deal with Rykomusic Ltd.
The first concert of the 2001 was played in a freezing warehouse on a bank of the Seine river in Rouen, France in May. The "Perspective No 1" two-day festival gave PM the chance to air new songs including "Writers Without Homes" and "The Season Is Long." A week later, the band supported Tindersticks at the Botanique in Brussels and in June played at the Spanish premiere parties for "Son De Mar" in Barcelona and Madrid. "Son De Mar - Music From The Film by Bigas Luna" was released by 4AD on August 6th 2001. Two days before, Piano Magic had played their biggest and arguably best concert at the Benicassim Festival in Spain. In 40 degrees heat and to an audience of 4000 crammed into a desert-side marquee, the band played a set which included an elongated, monumental finale of "Password" but also the first airing of a new song, "Geography & Jealousy."
Their final concerts were supporting Low at the grandiose Union Chapel in London, at the Tanned Tin Festival in Santander, Spain (November) and in Barcelona and Madrid (early December).
The release of Piano Magic's fourth album proper in the Summer of 2002 proved something of a relief to everyone in the band at the time. The recording of "Writers Without Homes" had been plagued by problems from the offset. A false start with producer John Rivers in the very first week of recording (March 2001) quickly drove the band to look elsewhere to continue with the album. A second producer was mooted though he, too, proved to be incompatible with the band's projection of how the record should sound. It wasn't until Autumn 2001 that the idea of having a producer at all was abandoned and the decision made to continue working on the album with just a sympathetic sound engineer on board was made. Piano Magic booked themselves into The Fortress studios in the Old Street area of London and, with the help of Robinson Hughes and Gareth Parton, began recording new material. "Writers Without Homes" is essentially divided into songs rescued/remixed from the original John Rivers session, songs originated and recorded at The Fortress, songs originated at Blue Mountain demo studios and songs recorded at home by Miguel Marin and Glen Johnson. Piano Magic had made a conscious decision on "Writers" to re-adopt the concept that had worked so well on "Low Birth Weight" : the band would write and record the majority of the music themselves but invite guests to add vocals or additional instrumentation. Simon Raymonde, formerly of Cocteau Twins, a key contributor to the This Mortal Coil project and now running the Bella Union label, added piano to "Crown Of The Lost" and "The Season Is Long." He also wrote and played the music you hear on "Shot Through The Fog," given only Johnson's lyrics as a guide. Raymonde was also instrumental in the drafting in of John Grant to sing on "The Season Is Long" - Grant being the singer with The Czars, signed to Bella Union. Paul Anderson from the group, Tram, then signed to Setanta, contributed vocals to "Already Ghosts" and an as yet unreleased title track, "Writers Without Homes." BBC Radio 3 presenter, Verity Sharp, had also played cello on the latter. "Already Ghosts" features a Spanish/Catalan vocal introduction by the band's patron saint, Bigas Luna. Charlotte Marionneau from Le Volume Courbe (signed to Poptones by Alan McGee) sang on "Dutch Housing" - not actually meeting any of the band until months after over-dubbing her vocal at home; their only guidance by telephone. Suzy Mangion, the singer of new Manchester unit, George, guested on 3 tracks : "Postal," "It's The Same Dream That Lasts All Night" and, an as yet unreleased, "Blood & Snow." (Though the latter was stripped of it's instruments and vocals and exists solely as melodic reverb tonation at the very end of the album - the "secret track"). Piano Magic had played their lowest attended concert with George in Manchester that year. "We were their audience and they were ours," says Johnson of the show. Robert Johnstone of Glasgow's Life Without Buildings provides guitar on "It's The Same Dream That Lasts All Night." (Johnstone had originally submitted 6 short guitar pieces, he'd recorded at home, to Mangion and she'd chosen the one which worked most cohesively with Johnson's lyrics). Piano Magic regular, Caroline Potter, returned for "Certainty" and "Shot Through The Fog" - the original version of which had appeared on the Rocket Girl compilation earlier that year in a completely different guise - only the lyrics stood their ground for the album version. Robert Lippok and Bernd Jestram from Berlin's esteemed Tarwater had taken the bare bones of "Modern Jupiter" and added vocals and reassembled it as something much more "groove-centred." Though the two bands had never played together, they shared a love of melding acoustic and electronic elements in their music. The major coup of "Writers," however, is probably the coaxing of 60's English folk princess, Vashti Bunyan, out of retirement to sing on the album. Bunyan had disappeared from the music industry after releasing just one album, "Just Another Diamond Day," in 1970. When Piano Magic's publisher, Paul Lambden at Rykomusic, re-issued this lost jewel in folk's crown on his Spinney label in 2000, Bunyan found an all-new, eager audience waiting for her. Glen Johnson : "Paul Lambden told me that Vashti was interested in singing again but the collaborator had to be right. I wrote "Crown Of The Lost" in an hour, drunk on wine, posted it to her that night so that I couldn't retract it in the cold light of day and she called me 2 days later to say it was beautiful; could she sing it?" On "Crown Of The Lost," Bunyan's angelic voice appears not to have changed in 30 years, like some eerie echo to a bygone era. Finally, Simon Rivers, who'd previously guested on "Low Birth Weight," sang on a Marin/Johnson composition, "You've Found A Way To Hurt Me" - again, unreleased to date. "Writers Without Homes" was finally released in June 2002 - 15 months after it's first note had been recorded - an age for the band who'd recorded their previous two long players in 5 days. Resplendent in v23 artwork, based on an idea by Johnson, "Writers" looks very much like a long-lost 4AD album. The critics generally agreed that it sounded like one too. The band who'd been founded by a self-confessed "4AD buff," who'd taken the percussive battery of Dead Can Dance and the chiming, ethereal fretwork of Dif Juz, had, for some, made a record a little too 4AD; perhaps a little too obvious.
Prior to the album's release a 12", originally intended as a promo, featuring mixes of "Dutch Housing" and "Certainty" by FortDax, Sybarite, DNTEL and Piano Magic themselves, found it's way into stores. The album, itself, suffered a mis-pressing - the mastering suite at Abbey Road accidentally omitting the secret track at the tail end of the record. Though 4AD retired to recall the copies at fault, some still found their way onto the racks of record stores.
"Writers" found both friends and detractors over the next few months, leading upto it's eventual domestic American release in November 2002. Miguel Marin left the band after almost 3 years to work on a solo project, Arbol. His debut album was released on the electronica imprint of Rocket Girl, 'Indus Sonica,' in November 2002 and featured contributions from one-time Magic members, John Cheves, Paul Tornbohm, James Topham and Suzy Mangion. Glen Johnson even DJ'ed at the album's launch party that month, a day prior to the band's most extensive tour of their beloved Spain. 10 shows in 10 days saw Piano Magic double the size of the venues they played 2 years prior and triple the audience. In Spain, they were becoming a best kept secret. At home, they were undervalued, underexposed and, well, didn't seem to mind.
In December 2002, 4AD and Piano Magic parted ways. Two albums had been the deal and two albums had been delivered and released. Neither party resisted the other's desire to move on. Two months prior to the parting of ways, Piano Magic had begun recording new material in seclusion - the show was going to go on, record deal or not, it seemed.
"Speed The Road, Rush The Lights" signalled the way forward in April 2003. This 3 track EP on the Spanish label, Green UFOS, found the band echoing their live performances, walking the very fine line between twilight ambience and tidal waves of noise. It also saw the return of Angele David-Guillou to the fold, to sing on "Luxembourg Gardens." The connection with Green UFOS, who already operated as the band's distributor and booking agent in Spain, was cemented with a deal to release the band's new album, "The Troubled Sleep Of Piano Magic" at the end of 2003.
> 2003 turned out to be Piano Magic's quietest year for live shows since their formation - one concert in Spain and two more in France - but their silence camouflaged a busy recording schedule. "Troubled Sleep," begun in early Winter 2002, again at The Fortress Studios with Robinson Hughes, saw the band stripped back to the core membership of Johnson, Alba, Steer, Topham, Tcherneyan. The only guest this time was, again, Angele David-Guillou. The breakdown to the bare essentials induced a much more focused, melodic, coherent record that closely echoes their live dynamic for the most part but it's also punctuated with several, almost folk-like, acoustic ballads. "Comets," "The Unwritten Law" and "Help Me Warm This Frozen Heart" were recorded at Tcherneyan's home and thus, possess the warm, ambient feeling you can find on the earlier 4 track recordings - the sense of the listener eavesdropping on a private moment. Another song from these sessions, "What Does Not Destroy Me," turned up on a 7" split single with David-Guillou's solo project, Klima, on the French label, Monopsone in September. The track also ended the Japanese version of "Troubled Sleep" (the Green UFOS release has the exclusive, "I Am The Teacher's Son" instead). Countering the albums more reflective moments were indications that, as the title suggests, it had been a hard 12 months. On opener,"Saint Marie," Johnson sounds like he's just weathered the cruellest storm. "When I'm Done, This Night Will Fear Me," is an ode to cold blade revenge. In "The End Of A Dark, Tired Year," Johnson carries the mule's burden of a suffocating London on his back into the night.
> In Piano Magic's darkest moments, they seem to make the most sense. "The Troubled Sleep Of Piano Magic" had the old fans returning, the journalists applauding and the band on a productive high - a new EP was recorded almost immediately and scheduled for a March 2004 release to coincide with another tour of Spain.

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