Search - Howard Skempton, John Tilbury :: Skempton: Pianoworks

Minimalism on par with Satie

Billy The Id | 10/31/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Credit to the folks at Sony for this edition in the Music For You series. My fist Satie CD was the Riri Shimada performances in the same series (kinda old school Windham Hill with the packaging...similar photo/cover moods by different artists) so I gambled on this and won. I am a fan of any artist that can take your conventional preconceptions regarding an instrument/song form (piano/solo piano performances) and still throw new experiences at you on their terms; to light a familiar subject in a new way as if it were the first time you'd seen and connected with it. Skempton and Tillbury do that on this release and then some. This is rich, cinematic music even without the movie. The CD, a blank white wall and a glass of wine will do wonders for you provided you have half an imagination and the time to let all 71 minutes penetrate you.



Skempton is one of the great contemporary composers and Tillbury just nails this stuff. The liner notes say Skempton himself was present for the tracking and signed off with thumbs up on the whole deal. The heat that must have been in the back of Tillbury's mind...that trial by fire with the composer himself present must have been nerve rattling but you won't find that in these performances. They roll like slow motion waves detailing every crest along a lonely, broken shore.



Just order it, already!"