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kinetoscope five :: 015 :: four brilliant piano ambient collaborations

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jkn:
original post at rM.community:  http://relaxedmachinery.ning.com/profiles/blogs/3565213:BlogPost:165964

all kinetoscope five blog posts:  http://relaxedmachinery.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=kinetoscopefive

kinetoscope five :: 015 :: four brilliant piano ambient collaborations

I love piano, I love ambient, I love drones, I love... well so much music it's silly.  But piano is my first love. I've been playing since I was 5. It's a part of me both physically when I play - it's like an extension of my body, and for lack of a better word... "spiritually". Piano is in my soul.

Here are four piano ambient albums - all collaborations that I've played a ton of times each... that all move me in different ways.  They share a few similarities... they all make use of sparse melodic piano lines - leaving plenty of space for the piano to linger.  Plenty of space for the background and the music surrounding and interacting with the piano to come forth. There's breath here, there's life.

James Johnson & Robert Scott Thompson - Forgotten Places

This is elegant ambient defined. Beautiful piano, beautiful backgrounds, beautiful spaces between the notes, a completely enjoyable, dare I say... beautiful experience. I've listened to this album many times since I got this, sheesh, a decade ago? Beautiful. I know I said "beautiful" too many times... I'm a musician, not a reviewer!

Bruno Sanfilippo & Matthias Grassow - CROMO piano and drones

Here again - the space is the key... Bruno's piano is never overbearing... plenty of room for everything to breathe. He takes his time. Matthias' drones are exquisite creating the perfect backdrop for the piano.

Harold Budd & Brian Eno - The Pearl

No piano / ambient album list would be complete with this piece of utter perfection.  Classic, amazing. It deserves to be on all those "best of" lists I see it on.  I love it. I love Plateaux of Mirror as well.

Adam Williams & Leonardo Rosado - Take This Longing

Adam playing piano here - and once again - fulfilling my desire for piano melody with plenty of space, patience, purposefulness.  On the other hand, Leonardo Rosado doesn't simply drift along in the background here, his processing and glitchery fades in and out and the two musicians intertwine and have a musical conversation.
 
John
 
image:  Heidi took this shot of me playing piano - http://johei.com/pixel/index.php?showimage=145


additional comment:  I'm listening to Max Richter's - The Blue Notebooks - and the piano in that is just jaw dropping amazing. It's not purely a piano album (although there is lots of piano) - but wow - if you've not heard this you are missing out.

drone on:
I would add to that list the Faryus/Bondarenko collaborations on the Faria label, very cool piano and drones albums. 

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