Photos: PHILIP GLASS: THE COMPLETE PIANO ETUDES EP to Feature Carmen Villain, TAUCETI & More
Producer Tauceti reworks Etude No. 2 into a nocturnal blend of ambient textures and pulsing techno.
Pianist Vanessa Wagner's 2025 album Philip Glass: The Complete Piano Etudes is being followed by an EP from InFiné's Versions series, in which a group of composer/producers reinterpret pieces from the recording. The EP, Philip Glass: Piano Etude Versions, includes four versions by Carmen Villain, Tauceti, Aho Ssan and Cucina Povera.
Lyon-based artist Tauceti has emerged as a distinctive talent on the contemporary techno-ambient scene. As a producer, she explores the more obscure territories of lustrous techno and hazy ambient, with releases on Denovali and work drawing on her Middle Eastern and Asian heritage.
For her reinterpretation of Etude No. 2, Tauceti takes the pastoral and nostalgic character of Glass's composition into darker, more visceral territory. Mournful arpeggios drift through hazy electronics, pulsing kicks, shimmering textures and scattered acoustic details, transforming Vanessa Wagner's piano into a nocturnal landscape suspended between post-club tension and concert-hall intimacy.
Each version is an Etude unto itself, demanding artists stretch their minds as they split Wagner's prismatic performances into four potent elements, exemplified in a twofold expansion of the oft lesser explored No. 20.
Inspired by Glass' composition 'Gone' for Godfrey Reggio's slow motion tone poem film Visitors, its enigmatic cascade of notes evolves in wildly different directions. Sharp and aflame, Parisian synthesist and sound artist Aho Ssan (Label: Subtext)'s version plummets to an awestriking buzz in a serrated tapestry of sonic manipulation, reconstructed from scratch.
In stark contrast, Carmen Villain harnesses the texturality informing her more dub oriented Smalltown Supersound output on her snowier, crystalline rendition. Lofi bursts of air sputter and billow, amplifying the meditative intensity of Wagner's complex harmonic ricochets.
Sparse notes describe the desert-like atmosphere of Lyon DJ and ambient soundscaper Tauceti's 'No. 2' version: mournful arpeggios drift between visceral throbs in wistful romance, a choreography merging hazy post-club air with concert hall cinematics.
Cucina Povera (Label: Night School)'s 'No. 10' version stems from the Finnish/Luxembourgish artist's loop and vocal experiments, creating impossible plunderphonic performances with piano played by time travelling hands. Cantering chords gather into reverberant thunderclouds, echoing Wagner's stretching and skewing of time in the arresting gravity of her recordings.
Philip Glass: Piano Etude Versions is set for digital release on 02/10/2026, with a vinyl release on 30/10/2026. The vinyl can be pre-ordered at fanlink.tv/pianoetudesversions.
Tracklist
01. N°2 - Tauceti Version
02. N°20 - Carmen Villain Version
03. N°20 - Aho Ssan Version
04. N°10 - Cucina Povera Version
Tour Dates
19.09.26 - Le Monde Festival - Paris/France
03.10.26 - Piano Festival w/ Wilhem Latchoumia - Rungis/France
04.10.26 - w/ Miroirs Etendus - Tourcoing/France
13.10.26 - Les Inoubliables Festival - Geneva/Switzerland
16.10.26 - Auditorium - Cahors/France
25.10.26 - Ré-Majeure Festival - Rivedoux, Île de Ré/France
31.10.26 - Festival, Théâtre Debussy - Dinard/France
03.11.26 - L'Eclat - Thorigné-Fouillard/France
06.11.26 - Jeu de Mail - Pamiers/France
13.11.26 - Théâtre - Grasse/France
15.11.26 - Santa Cecilia, Romaeuropa Festival, Glass Integral - Rome/Italy
20.11.26 - Monte le Son Festival - Paris/France
26.11.26 - Arsonic w/ Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie - Mons/Belgium
08.12.26 - Musée d'Orsay - Paris/France
From 08 to 10.01.27 - Casa da Música w/ Porto Symphony Orchestra - Porto/Portugal
15.01.27 - De Singel, Glass Integral - Antwerp/Belgium
19.01.27 - Grand Théâtre w/ Miroirs Etendus - Rouen/France
21.01.27 - MC2 w/ Miroirs Etendus - Grenoble/France
27.01.27 - Cultuurcentrum - Hasselt/Belgium
About Vanessa Wagner
Vanessa Wagner has established herself as one of the leading international specialists in Philip Glass's work in general, and in his Piano Etudes in particular. She is now one of the few pianists to have tackled all 20 Etudes in their full diversity, revealing the richness and evolution of the American composer's writing, as well as her own mastery of the different levels of interpretation contained within his scores.
Philip Glass himself has strongly supported the French pianist in her approach. In June 2025, she took part in several events dedicated to the composer's Piano Etudes, including two prestigious showcases in Hamburg and Berlin devoted to the cycle, before embarking on an extensive tour of France dedicated to the composer's works. This tour took her to a landmark concert at the Philharmonie de Paris in October, as well as to many sold-out venues across France and to the stages of the country's major piano festivals — La Roque d'Anthéron, the Festival de Piano des Jacobins and Variations in Nantes, to name just a few — before she presented a new show at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, featuring installations by Collectif Scale, which Philip Glass himself attended.
Released in October 2025, Philip Glass: The Complete Piano Etudes, her new album, quickly established itself as one of the international reference recordings of the Piano Etudes. The album received widespread praise from French media, including Le Monde, Télérama, Libération, France Musique and France Culture, as well as from international publications such as Piano News, International Piano / Gramophone and The Art Desk. It was also featured by more general-interest media outlets such as Bandcamp Daily, The Wire and PopMatters. Since its release, the album has also distinguished itself in the SNEP Classique charts, where it remained in the Top 5 for several weeks. The release was followed in March 2026 by Figures of Glass, a carefully curated selection of edits taken from the project and developed for the show of the same name.
In parallel, the performance Vanessa Wagner & Friends, broadcast on Arte as part of Paris Sur Mesure, brought together the pianist performing the Etudes, Collectif Scale, the Accrorap dance company and circus artist Chloé Moglia. This multidisciplinary performance fully illustrates Vanessa Wagner's ability to bring Philip Glass's music into dialogue with other artistic forms.
This autumn, the vinyl release of Philip Glass: Piano Etude Versions constitutes an essential prologue to the electronic soundscape of Vanessa Wagner's cycle devoted to Philip Glass's Piano Etudes. The project brings together, on a vinyl record, reinterpretations of the Etudes by emerging artists from the international electronic and experimental scene, including Carmen Villain, Aho Ssan, Tauceti and Cucina Povera.
Vanessa Wagner has also been appointed curator of the prestigious La Folle Journée festival in Nantes for the 2027 and 2028 editions, while continuing her tour with new dates in France and abroad. She is further developing her work around Philip Glass's music and exploring different ways of bringing it into dialogue with contemporary artistic scenes.
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