Gia Margaret - Romantic Piano (Vinyl)
At first, Gia Margaret called her new album ‘Romantic Piano’ to be a bit cheeky. Its spare, gentle piano works share more spirit with Erik Satie, Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guébrou and the ‘Marginalia’ releases of Masakatsu Takagi than they do with, say, a cozy and candlelit date night.
But in that cheekiness lies hidden intention: across the gorgeous set, “Romantic Piano” is suggested in a more classic sense, what the Germans call waldeinsamkeit. Its compositions conjure the sublime themes of the Romantic poets: solitude in nature; nature’s ability to heal and to teach; a sense of contented melancholy.
Margaret’s debut, ‘There’s Always Glimmer,’ was a lyrical wonder, but when an illness on tour left her unable to sing, she made her ambient album ‘Mia Gargaret’ (another cheeky title!) which revealed a keen intuition for arrangement and composition not fully shown on ‘There’s Always Glimmer’s lyrical songs.
‘Romantic Piano’, too, is almost totally without words. “Writing instrumental music, in general, is a much more joyful process than I find in lyrical songwriting,” she says. “The process ultimately effects my songwriting.” And while Margaret has more songwriterly material on the way, ‘Romantic Piano’ solidifies her as a compositional force.
Available on limited seaglass wave translucent coloured vinyl.
Tracklist:
A1. Hinoki Wood
A2. Ways of Seeing
A3. Cicadas
A4. Juno
A5. A Stretch
A6. City Song
B1. Sitting at the Piano
B2. Guitar Piece
B3. La langue de l’amitié
B4. 2017
B5. April to April
B6. Cinnamon
B7. A Hidden Track
At first, Gia Margaret called her new album ‘Romantic Piano’ to be a bit cheeky. Its spare, gentle piano works share more spirit with Erik Satie, Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guébrou and the ‘Marginalia’ releases of Masakatsu Takagi than they do with, say, a cozy and candlelit date night.
But in that cheekiness lies hidden intention: across the gorgeous set, “Romantic Piano” is suggested in a more classic sense, what the Germans call waldeinsamkeit. Its compositions conjure the sublime themes of the Romantic poets: solitude in nature; nature’s ability to heal and to teach; a sense of contented melancholy.
Margaret’s debut, ‘There’s Always Glimmer,’ was a lyrical wonder, but when an illness on tour left her unable to sing, she made her ambient album ‘Mia Gargaret’ (another cheeky title!) which revealed a keen intuition for arrangement and composition not fully shown on ‘There’s Always Glimmer’s lyrical songs.
‘Romantic Piano’, too, is almost totally without words. “Writing instrumental music, in general, is a much more joyful process than I find in lyrical songwriting,” she says. “The process ultimately effects my songwriting.” And while Margaret has more songwriterly material on the way, ‘Romantic Piano’ solidifies her as a compositional force.
Available on limited seaglass wave translucent coloured vinyl.
Tracklist:
A1. Hinoki Wood
A2. Ways of Seeing
A3. Cicadas
A4. Juno
A5. A Stretch
A6. City Song
B1. Sitting at the Piano
B2. Guitar Piece
B3. La langue de l’amitié
B4. 2017
B5. April to April
B6. Cinnamon
B7. A Hidden Track