Italian pianist and composer Lorenzo Masotto (read our 2017’s talk with him) is back with a new album called i=r which is out now via Whitelabrecs. According to the press release, is an album which Lorenzo started to write when the pandemic broke out across northern Italy and much of the world, in March 2020. He set out initially to explore the complete tonal possibilities of a Seiler upright piano, restricted to two microphones. He became fascinated as he discovered the beauty and sonic elegance of a hammer touching the string, muffled by felt, as the motion and vibrations created all kinds of creaks and noises within the wood.
i=r, known as Snell’s Law, is the law of refraction. Each piece of this album represents a different refraction, as different points of view reflected in an artificial or natural mirror. The accompanying photography by Michele Dolci is as much a part of the album as the music, as individual scenes of symmetry, asymmetry and reflection each depict a given track from the album.
It is perhaps fitting exactly one year on since the ideas behind this album emerged, that this bright and fluid collection of compositions beam their rays of hope back from those dark reflections. Light and darkness, warmth and cold, strong and frail, hopeful and despairing. Our hope now is to emerge into the light, under the warmth of spring, with a renewed strength born of our collective despair.
Check the full streaming below.