solo piano
See: Ben Seretan – ‘Rain & Cicadas’: the piano in meshed susurration with the Appalachian rain
A FEW weeks ago we blissed into Sunday with New York songwriter and composer Ben Seretan’s absolutely luscious “Fog Rolls Out Rabun Gap”, the hero and protagonist of the piece at the piano and very much also in the world, his environment at the artist’s residency he was undertaking in the small community of that …
TRACK: Magnus John Anderson -‘Elkhorn’: studio wizard steps out with modern compositional piano
ONE OF the sea changes we’re seeing from all this viral upheaval is the emergence of artists finding their own voice in order to create, whereas previously they might have been happy in a more collaborative set-up; or, indeed, were putting their sonic skills to the service of others in production, mastering, arrangement and other …
SEE: Jon Hopkins covers Thom Yorke’s ‘Dawn Chorus’
AS THIS most hellishly viral year’s eyelids droop and it prepares to exit stage left, the masterful Jon Hopkins has brought some beautiful piano catharsis and grace for our troubled brains as he drops a cover of Thom Yorke’s “Dawn Chorus”. The track features on Thom’s most recent solo outing, Anima. It was recorded in one …
NEWS: experimental composer and Cocteaus collaborator Harold Budd reported to have passed, aged 84
SAD NEWS this evening as reports began to circulate across social media that the poet, avant-garde composer and pianist Harold Budd, a progenitor of the modern ambient piano style, has died at the age of 84. Budd was born in May 1936 in Los Angeles, but was raised in Victorville, in the Mojave desert. He …
TRACK: Louis-Étienne Santais – ‘Reflection 1’: a piano study for an old friend
QUEBECOIS composer Louis-Étienne Santais has only been releasing music as himself, for himself, for a matter of months now; but he’s already racked something like two million streams on Spotify for his wistful, warming modern solo piano composition. Also a member of the beautifully melancholic duo Ghostly Kisses alongside Margaux Sauvé, he’s about to release …
SEE: Neil Cowley’s ‘Eureka Pulse’: solo piano grace from new triptych of EPs
NEIL COWLEY is someone who has lived and breathed music his whole life. He took on a Shostakovich piano concerto at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall at the age of 10; not so many years later he developed a reputation as a go-to pianist and keyboardist in British funk, working with Zero 7, Gabrielle and The …
ALBUM REVIEW: Laraaji – ‘Sun Piano’: solo piano from Eno’s stable
LARAAJI, the ambient musician, laughter therapist and even one-time stand-up born Edward Larry Gordon – who has even rubbed celluloid shoulders with Antonio Fargas, aka ‘Huggy Bear’, from Starsky and Hutch, has one hell of a joyous and creative meander through this world. He shapes up this week to release what may be his 62nd …