It is not too often that we come along something sent to us that really has this much of an impact. Coming off the back of an email, opened on a frosty winter morning, with the comparatively toasty shop air warming my fingers, and the tinkling reverbed piano of 'Turn' warming my cold, cold heart.
Simeon Walker crafts gorgous, plaintive piano pieces whose strength lies not in their complexity (though there is layer upon layer of complexity to even the simplest sounding outcomes), but in their absolute, trasportative wonder.
The aforementioned 'Turn' obviously owes some dues to the dull hammers and dampened grace notes of Nils Frahm (though the comparison feels a little lazy, there are few modern pianists that cover the wide emotional range that Frahm does without it feeling overwrought), but with a wintery tentative unease coming in waves before being hushed again through the ambient echoes of creaking wood and paddling keys.
Pieces like 'Drift' pull things back down to earth with infrequent harmonic clashes and slowly unfurling blossoms, redolent and fragile. There is a recurring juxtaposition of terse, semi-melodic intervals leaving a question in the air before being answered by overwhelming beauty. The sadness is overcome by a wealth of melody like the thaw of the winter is culled by the rich, warming progressions.
The flipside sees a more plaintive beginning, with the held notes and echoing shadows of 'Froze' slowly increasing intensity (and tempo) into a more visceral but no less mournful requiem, the minor keys producing overlapping notes until the the established notes stumble over themselves into an intentionally jarring key change.
Throughout 'Mono', walker display an innate knowledge of melody, an impeccable ear for progression, and an undeniably human outlook. Beautifully designed (aesthetically and thematically), and impeccably produced. Walker is a true, undiluted talent.
STAFF COMMENTS
Barry says: Completely beautiful minimalist piano pieces, swimming in icy ambience and warm, fireside euphoria. Recommended for fans of Frahm, Johannsson, Richter et. al, but reducing it's appeal to that may be doing a mis-service. This is stunning on it's own merits and manages to do that rare thing of giving nods to the greats without mindless emulation. Stunning.
TRACK LISTING
1. Turn 06:12
2. Lull 04:19
3. Drift 03:38
4. Hush 07:01
5. Froze 06:13
6. Lilt 04:33
7. Breathe 07:02
8. Letters 04:08
9. Coda 02:13
