''Pelagos'' is a solo double album by Italian classical and jazz pianist

Stefano Battaglia Stefano Battaglia (born 1965 in Milan) is an Italian classical and jazz pianist. He performed as a soloist with the European Youth Orchestra in Barcelona (1981). He won the J.S. Bach Festival award in Düsseldorf for best new pianist of the yea ...

, recorded in May 2016 and released on ECM September 15, 2017—Battaglia's seventh release for the label.

Background

The theme of the album is "the suffering countries of the Mediterranean and Balkan areas." For the two days before the recording, Battaglia was in a monastery, "meditating upon the meaning of migration."

Recording and music

The album of solo piano performances by Battaglia was recorded at the Fazioli Concert Hall in

Sacile Sacile (; vec, Sathìl ; Liventina: ; Western Friulian: ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Pordenone, in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region of northeastern Italy. It is known as the "Garden of the ''Serenissima''" after the many palace ...

, Italy in May 2016. Two sessions were recorded at the same venue—one with an audience and one without. Some of the pieces include playing on a

prepared piano A prepared piano is a piano that has had its sounds temporarily altered by placing bolts, screws, mutes, rubber erasers, and/or other objects on or between the strings. Its invention is usually traced to John Cage's dance music for ''Bacchanale' ...

. Approximately four hours of music were recorded. Producer

Manfred Eicher Manfred Eicher (born 9 July 1943) is a German record producer and the founder of ECM Records. Life and career Eicher was born in Lindau, Germany. He studied music at the Academy of Music in Berlin. He started as a double-bass player of classic ...

selected around two hours of playing for release. Of the tracks, five ("Pelagos", "Halap", "Exilium", "Migration Mantra" and "Ufratu") are Battaglia compositions, eleven are improvisations and one is a traditional Arabic song, "Lama Bada Yatathanna", that is performed twice. Applause was cut from the recording, so does not appear on the album. Some of the track titles are in keeping with the album's theme: "Lampedusa" is an Italian island where migrant boats from Libya landed. "Horgos e Roszke" are towns on the Hungary–Serbia border. "Exilium" means "exile" in Latin; while "Destino" is Italian for "destiny". The first of these four is an improvisation; "Crushed notes, in pairs, become slowly louder, in protest or simply in pain." The second is also an improvisation, played quietly. The final two "are founded on a few dark repeating left-hand chords like knells of finality, from which Battaglia's right hand seeks release in markings upon silence, in isolated notes that gather to bare melodies." Additionally, "Ufratu" is named after the

Euphrates The Euphrates () is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Tigris–Euphrates river system, Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia ( ''the land between the rivers'') ...

Reception

The ''

JazzTimes ''JazzTimes'' is an American magazine devoted to jazz. Published 10 times a year, it was founded in Washington, D.C. in 1970 by Ira Sabin as the newsletter ''Radio Free Jazz'' to complement his record store. Coverage After a decade of growth ...

'' reviewer believed that this was the best of Battaglia's ECM recordings: "''Pelagos'' is an achievement of extraordinary depth, realized through an extraordinary range of artistic means."

Track listing

* Tracks drawn from the concert performance are: 1, 3–6, 8 (CD1); 2, 4, 5, 8 (CD2)

Personnel

– piano

References

{{Authority control 2017 albums ECM Records albums Solo piano jazz albums Stefano Battaglia albums