For the Record is a conversation series where we speak with all manner of music heads — DJs, music journos, indie label captains, record shop owners, listening bar kingpins, et al — about their stories + the music that makes them.

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Lubomyr Melnyk is a composer and pianist of Ukrainian origin. He plays what he calls continuous music, a style whose rigorous technique shares commonality with martial arts. He's regarded as the world’s fastest piano player, capable of playing 19 and a half notes per second. It’s a skill that’s enabled him to create singular musical landscapes, where sound appears to come in swathes rather than individual notes -- a practice he’s been at it for more than sixty years.

Music Mentions

• Erased Tapes
• Ludwig van Beethoven
• Karlheinz Stockhausen
• John Cage
• Hector Berlioz
• Olivier Messiaen
• Luciano Berio
• Iannis Xenakis
• Terry Riley
• “In C” album by Terry Riley
• Luciano Pavarotti
• John Lennon
• Paul McCartney
• Johann Sebastian Bach
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• Richard Wagner
• Giuseppe Verdi
• Frédéric Chopin

Q&A

• “Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Minor” by Beethoven
• Johannes Brahms
• “House of the Rising Sun” by The Animals
• Eric Burdon
• “Good Times” by Eric Burdon and The Animals
• Modest Mussorgsky
• “Night on Bald Mountain” by Modest Mussorgsky
• The Beatles
• John McLaughlin
• The Doors
• Claude Debussy
• Richard Stoltzman

First album ever purchased (57:36):

• “Chopin Favorites” by Lilia Wollin

Desert Island Discs (1:24:50):

• “Symphony No. 9” by Beethoven
• “Chopin Favorites” by Lilia Wollin
• “Maid With the Flaxen Hair” by Claude Debussy