Howard Jones rose to fame in the 1980s with synth-pop hits and a pioneering one-man-band live electronic setup. But he hasn’t limited himself to synthesizers alone. Throughout his career, Howard has also performed on piano and he recently released a series of piano-based albums.
On October 14, 2025, he performed a special Steinway & Sons Spiriocast concert from the Steinway Hamburg factory floor. Jones played on a connected Steinway Spirio | r (a modern-day player piano), while audiences in other cities gathered at venues equipped with Spirio | r instruments to experience the performance. Unlike a typical webcast where only the audio is transmitted, these connected pianos received all the note, expression, and other performance data, physically recreating the piano concert in real time. Look closely in the video, and you’ll see the piano keys moving. Video screens allowed audiences to see Howard as he played.
This instrumental video of “New Song,” from Howard’s debut album Human’s Lib, was recorded at Steinway Hall in New York.
For more info on Howard Jones, visit howardjones.com. For more info on the Steinway Spirio | r piano, visit https://www.steinway.com/spirio/spirio-r.
We have several interviews with Howard Jones in the Chaos Control archives; check them out at https://chaoscontrol.com/interviews-archive/.
