The Predatory Wasp
Kelly Moran builds on the stripped-back, mesmeric piano that comprised 2023’s EP Vesela with her new album Moves in the Field. Gone are the experimental electronic meanderings of some of her previous work, replaced with these (relatively) straightforward but still completely enchanting pieces.
Trevor Powers’ return as Youth Lagoon completed passed me by last year, the album’s inclusion on various end of year lists has prompted me to dive in. I really liked his last two albums under his own name, especially 2018’s Mulberry Violence, was a beautifully odd. Lux Radio Theatre isn’t the most exciting track on Heaven is a Junkyard, but it’s probably the prettiest.
If I had a musical wishlist for 2023, Gia Margaret releasing an album called Romantic Piano would be very near the top of it. Due 26 May, the double A-side Cicadas / Hinoki Wood is out now, and follows in a similarly beautiful, subdued vein as her incredible 2020 LP Mia Gargaret. Roll on sad boy/girl summer.
Sufjan! Sufers! The Big Suf! Yesterday our founding father announced a new album, Reflections, a studio recording of his score for Justin Beck’s ballet, performed by pianists Timo Andres and Conor Hanick. To be honest, I don’t really like this very much – all a bit ‘jazzy’ for my tastes – but if Sufjan releases, this blog must report. Hopefully they’ll be some sad bits on the full album than I can cherrypick.
Announced today, the forthcoming Let the Moon Be a Planet is the first volume of Reflections, a series of contemporary collaborations between guitarist and songwriter Steve Gunn and pianist and composer David Moore of Bing & Ruth. Over The Dune is the first single, and guess what? It’s lush.
https://bingruth.bandcamp.com/album/reflections-vol-1-let-the-moon-be-a-planet
A lot of posts this month are likely to be based on me scrolling through countless end of year lists and writing variations on “how the fuck did I miss this – it’s amazing!” Today, though, I do have something new for you, taken from Moby’s new ambient album released on 01 January, “made to help anxiety (my own, and hopefully yours, too)”. amb 23-14 is a sparse 9 minute piano piece, with a few gently billowing synths drifting in and out, and seems appropriate for the first post of the year.
Four decades and dozens of albums into his career, Ludovico Einaudi doesn’t seem to be slowing down, which, if you like gentle, emotionally -charged classical piano, can only be a good thing. For me Einaudi is like a gateway drug I never graduate from into “proper” (read: old, probably Austrian) classical, as this kind of classical musical intimidates me, so I remain stuck on this less challenging but arguably just as beautiful fare. Atoms is gentle, sad (obviously) and foreshadows his new album Underwater due for release in January.
It’s Friday right, so really I should be posting something party-appropriate to soundtrack your #bignightout but I now live in Devon so instead here’s a short ambient piano track complete with birdsong: perfect for watching the sun go down over some rolling fields or gently lapping beachside waves.
The Predatory Wasp 