James Heather – Stories From Far Away On Piano – Album Review by Killian Laher

Composer James Heather releases his debut album Stories From Far Away On Piano.  It’s a fairly brief collection of wintry-sounding piano pieces which evoke many similar artists of the genre such as Nils Frahm and Max Richter.  After the brief, introductory Ruqia, Empire Sounds follows, which is a deceptively uplifting sounding piece, featuring complex piano arpeggios.  Biomes is a little darker, evoking the feeling of something sinister lurking under the surface.  This is music for dark, bleak evenings when summer is a distant memory.  One of the tracks is entitled Pathos, which paints a picture of how the album sounds.  We also get the more tranquil likes of MHope, which builds at a glacial pace before expanding into a more fully realised piece.  While there is little variety on the album, the solo piano pieces gel together well to present a unified sound.

Although this genre is a relatively crowded one, there is enough going on here to make this one worthy of investigation.  As far as solo piano albums go, this is one of the more impressive ones.

Track List:

1. Ruqia
2. Empire Sounds
3. MHope
4. Biomes
5. Last Minute Change Of Heart
6. Pathos
7. Teardrop Tattoo
8. Kraken
9. Blueprint