Search - Joe Hisaishi :: Etude - A Wish To The Moon

An enchanting piano album

R. A. Bull | England | 01/08/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"16 years after the original Piano Stories album was released, Hisaishi delivers us his fourth Piano Stories effort entitled 'Etude: a wish to the moon'. What first strikes you about Etude is that the album is purely solo piano, with no string enhancments in the background whatsoever (unlike the 2nd & 3rd piano stories, which were rife with luscious string textures). The other thing that strikes you is that the overall atmosphere and piano arrangments are altogether different from his first three offerings. The piano pieces no longer contain the basic ostinato bass lines mixed with the beautiful single-line melodies on top, but instead he approaches his compositions from a more harmonic point of view, relying on interesting tempo spaces and relaxing cadence points to conjure his images.



The concept of the album is to move through 10 seperate keys (which are represented in the liner notes as a handwritten moon shape with ten songs in ten different keys adorning it's circumference, each song's key ascending chromatically into the next). The pieces themselves are loosely based around concepts of nightfall and moonlight, and the variety of atmospheres moving from track to track certainly keeps interest levels high (the piece 'monochromaticism' contains a singular melody-line that is almost entirely chromatic, hence the title).



One gripe I do have about the album is that Hisaishi's performance style can be a little heavy-handed at times, but you tend to get the feeling that there is a reason for this (maybe he wants to solidify his extremely well-crafted melodies into our subconscience?). Having said that, the performances on this CD are of a very high standard, and he is just as brilliant a performer as he is a composer.



I'm a huge fan of Hisaishi's soundtracks and solo works, and I thoroughly recommend his latest Piano Stories CD to anyone who loves listening to tasteful solo piano music. A real treat for the ears!"