Bruno Heinen – Mr. Vertigo (2018) [Qobuz FLAC 24bit/48kHz]

Bruno Heinen is a contemporary improvising pianist, composer, researcher and educator whose London base is a springboard to his adopted second country in Italy, where he has made strong musical relationships with players like Antonio Fusco and Fulvio Sigurta. “Mr. Vertigo” is his sixth album under his own name on the Babel Label.

“Mr Vertigo” is a bold, diverse exploration of solo piano counterpoint by Bruno Heinen, and his sixth album on the progressive Babel Label. Heinen has established pedigree in both classical and jazz worlds, in his various collaborations with jazz players in London and Italy, and his recent role in the piano chair in Bernstein’s Wonderful Town with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle at the Barbican. On “Mr Vertigo Heinen” approaches the instrument from a new standpoint, without a prescribed attitude to improvisation or preoccupation with genre distinctions in his compositions or selections. Instead he focuses in on the contrapuntal identity of each piece – using each one to explore a particular aspect of the rich relationships between parts in solo performance. The result is a record that resists traditional categorisation.

Part of Mr Vertigo’s project is technical and investigative, a kind of research: Mirage explores space and atonality using subtle overdubs and post-production techniques; Virgo is a ‘duet’ with an original Stockhausen music box; Forgotten Images weaves a rare Debussy theme into an original Heinen composition; Daydreamer draws on Wayne Shorter’s Night Dreamer to investigate the relationship between two time signatures.
Each piece of music also has a very human point of origin, a story being expressed by each contrapuntal approach. The title track, based on a Paul Auster novel, describes the traumatic experience of a boy learning to fly. ‘Hommage à Kurtág’, played with only the two index fingers, is based on the instinctive moves of children arriving at a piano to play for the first time. In Kochi Heinen draws on a Vagadhibhusani South Indian Carnatic scale he learned while travelling through India.
The pianist’s ability with counterpoint has always been evident: in his approach to solo building, his Tierkries Sextet writing, and in his current studies with renowned pianist Fred Hersch. Mr Vertigo shows him engaging with the full range of its possibilities.

Tracklist:
01 – Forgotten Images
02 – Hommage À Kurtàg
03 – Daydreamer
04 – Virgo
05 – The Peacocks
06 – Mirage
07 – International Blues
08 – Mr Vertigo
09 – In Kochi
10 – Fire and Rain

Download:

mqs.link_BrunHeinenMr.Vertig2018Qbuz2448.rar

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