A visual marvel, Le Piano Oriental is a graphic novel originally published in 2015. Written by Franco-Lebanese author Zeina Abirached, the story delightfully weaves together the parallel lives of Abdallah Kamanja, an office clerk and piano tuner in 1960s Beirut with modern day Zeina growing up between Beirut and Paris. The ... [Continue Reading]
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Hania Rani: Home
Just over a year after her impressive solo piano début album Esja for Gondwana Records, Polish pianist and composer Hania Rani returns with a new collection which expands significantly on her original sound. Featuring double bass, drums, a string quintet and the pianist herself on synthesisers, keyboards, electronics and vocals, ... [Continue Reading]
Vanessa Wagner: Inland
French classical pianist Vanessa Wagner initiated in 2016 a fascinating exploration of contemporary minimalist music alongside Mexican electronic musician Murcof with the wonderful Statea and three accompanying EPs. Pursuing a similar conversation between contemporary minimalist composers, solo piano and electronic music, ... [Continue Reading]
Paddy Mulcahy: How to Disappear
Paddy Mulcahy is a Limerick city-based pianist, composer, electronic musician and producer who debuted his career scoring for shorts, documentaries and adverts. Ever since the release of his 2015 EP Tape Sketches, the musician has been steadily delving into a more modern classical, minimalist and experimental study of acoustic ... [Continue Reading]
Chris Gall & Bernhard Schimpelsberger: Myriad
Chris Gall & Bernhard Schimpelsberger is a jazz piano and percussion duo formed in 2016. Piano and drums duos are extremely rare, especially in the realm of jazz where the formation will always be considered a double bass-short of the classic trio. But the absence of an official bass is more than adequately compensated here ... [Continue Reading]
Murcof x Vanessa Wagner: Statea
From Rennes in Brittany, Vanessa Wagner is a classically trained pianist who has recorded the piano repertoire of Franz Shubert, Robert Shuman, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Claude Debussy, Alexander Scriabin, Maurice Ravel among others as well as the music of contemporary French composer Pascal Dusapin. Born in Tijuana, Mexico and now ... [Continue Reading]
Shida Shahabi: Homes / Shifts
Based in Stockholm, Shida Shahabi is a pianist and composer born to Iranian parents who fled the Iraq war in the 1980s to settle in Sweden. Written over the course of a year while moving from one apartment to another, Shida Shahabi’s intimate début solo piano record [amazon text=Homes&asin=B07F9G2JSR] was released on 19 ... [Continue Reading]