Sounds like…

Ambient piano noodlings.

The review

Bruno Sanfilippo sits on the minimalist side of piano composition. He has been making the Piano Textures series for a few years now and this fifth iteration continues to see Bruno working on switching up how a piano sounds to match different moods. The album itself is a gentle one and you could almost consider it background music. That sounds like a negative but to make effective background music is actually quite tricky to do.

Across the albums eleven tracks, Bruno plays relatively simple melodies but then uses various textured synths to surround the piano in different ways. Occasionally he’ll also warp the piano into different sounds too, much like his previous ‘Pianette‘ release. The piano hammers are an integral part of the mix but whilst the minimal melodies play around, it is often the washed-out synths that paint the boldest colour. Vinyl spits, hazy hues, white noise soaked drones and even alien bounce noises are used to create the atmosphere of the album. I felt like the album wanted to allude to something rather than spell it out. For me personally, it left me a little disconnected from the album but for others looking for a more floaty dynamic, you’ll enjoy it much more.

By leaning towards the faint outline of something rather than tying a melody down strongly, Bruno Sanfilippo has created an album that will please a lot of his minimalist and new-age fan base. Whilst this didn’t click quite so much for me as some of his other non-textured releases, I can still appreciate the work and how Bruno can express so much within his subtle piano playing. Side note – the closing track ‘XI’ is perfect for space travel too.

Recommended track: Piano Texture V IV

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