Frame

 The Piano Series

Artists are artists. They happen to work in colour, or with clay, or words, or musical sounds. But the key thing is that they are artists, first and foremost, and it is hardly surprising when one encounters them thinking in terms of another art form entirely. So it is with the latest CAM JAZZ release by piano maestro Enrico Pieranunzi, a set of meditations on some of the painters – Jackson Pollock, Paul Klee, Mark Rothko, Piet Mondrian, Picasso inevitably – who have inspired and perhaps influenced him down the years. We don’t really have a name for the beginning and end of a piece of music, which exists in the air, so the idea of framing is an attractive one for a musical artist, and it’s no great surprise to learn that these beautiful meditations, which paint pictures, spatter sounds like colour, take lines for a walk, go out under the title Frame.  Pieranunzi has previously shown his devotion to movie makers and their musical collaborators. Here he shows a fresh new side of his complex but accessible cultural vision. Surveys show that we spend on average only seconds in front of even favourite paintings in a gallery. You’ll spend many happy hours listening to (gazing at) these beautiful piano pictures.  (Brian Morton)

Recorded in Ludwigsburg in October 2012 at Bauer Studios  Recording engineer Johannes Wollheben

Photos by Andrea Boccalini

Liner notes by Brian Morton