Chilly Gonzales- Solo Piano

Give me a well-recorded Piano and more importantly, someone who know’s what they’re doing with it and I will quite happily sink into my chair for a couple of hours. Of course, there are many exquisitely talented individuals playing exquisite sounding instruments you can find in the archives on Tidal or Spotify. Deutsche Gramaphon is an excellent label to start with if you are interested in exploring some exceptional talents however today’s album, Chilly Gonzales’s ‘Solo Piano’ is a self-released title and his most successful to date.

There’s a beautiful sensitivity to this record, the piano itself has a mellow quality, close mic’d in a small room but with all the detail present. You can hear the sound of his nails on the keys, the creek of the Piano stool and the resonating room around him. It is so refreshing to hear a record that is so dynamic in a world where the loudness war rages on. The album is quite simply described as ‘a cd of 16 Piano themes for left-hand accompaniment and right-hand melody’, a purveying sense of modesty to the album that entices the listener in politely, and then invites your attention back, time after time.

The writing continues this modesty, there are no extravagant flurries or wild passages designed to wow the listener, only deep attention to melody. Each track moves calmly to the next and each creates its own tapestry, its own unique mood. Thankfully there is so much variation between each track that the record never becomes tiring or repetitive, this is achieved through shifts in tempo and exploration of different modal flavours but ultimately it is the record’s simple presentation that commands your attention. Particular highlights for me include, ‘Manifesto’, ‘Overnight’, ‘Meischeid’, ‘Gentle Threat’ and ‘C.M Blues’.

For those of us that seek a modicum of respite from the loudness war in this modern age of music, I can not recommend ‘Solo Piano’ enough. Listening to a high-quality stream through a good quality DAC really focused its subtleties and nuances for me, I listened through Tidal on this occasion but would happily recommend the cd or vinyl for those of us lucky enough to own it. The best news, of course, is that there are also two new additions to ‘Solo Piano’ available and if this record has inspired an interest, I recommend checking those out too.