Highlights:
Me And You, Les Nuits Blanches, Plasson, The Secret Of The Sea
8/10
This is the
bright side of modern classical.
Rainy, too,
but mostly bright. Bruno Bavota is an Italian composer who is like a breath of
fresh air after Hauschka’s latest exploits. It’s what you get after spending
too much time sitting at home in a stuffy, cluttered room. It’s what you see on
the cover. I would call it unabashedly beautiful.
The Secret Of
The Sea, Bruno’s third album, has a lush and opulent sound
that is sentimental and never cheesy. What makes it good is the fact that it
has impressive melodic substance. What makes it distinguishable is the
extensive use of classical guitar (rather reminiscent of what you might hear on
one of those mood-setting ‘tranquility’ records). The guitar is good and adds
to the sound, but it is primarily an embellishment. It’s these thoughtful,
elegiac piano lines that carry Bruno’s tunes. “Les Nuits Blanches”, my
favourite piece here, is completely guitar-free. The buildup is lovely, and the
intense rain-dropping climax is what I will surely come back to again and again
this year.
What a genuinely beautiful modern classical record.
Painstakingly created and seemingly effortless. All sweet rain, gently whooshing
sea waves and charm. May lack that vital wrong
chord on occasion, but I guess that’s irrelevant. This album’s prettiness is
its edge. Something you can understand when you learn that Bruno Bavota is from
Naples.
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