From Turin to New York City – sound composer and pianist Emiliano Melis captures the authenticity of raw musical expression, with the organic tones, meandering melodies, phrases, and natural reverb of the stunning new album Broken Piano Tapes.
Built around an intentionally experimental format, Broken Piano Tapes utilises fragmented piano melodies and loops, which sound like nostalgic journeys through music’s unplugged past – partly due to their real-time playing; and the fact that these loops were recorded on cassette tapes.
The old-school format is slowly making its way back into the modern listening realm, and as such, the textures and lo-fi ambiances of this project feel particularly immersive and hypnotic right now.
From Dusty Imagination we enter a mildly chaotic but calming realm – something like snippets of idea and feeling, a dreamscape of contemplation, which is no doubt unique to each who listens. Then for 1987, the pace settles down, a spacious composition ensues, and a sense of cinematic quietness lets the imagination confidently fill in the gaps.
Self-defined as a sort of musical anagram, the parts of this project have been deconstructed and reshuffled, presenting a new kind of puzzle but also not overly unsettling the listener in the process. Quite the opposite, in fact – the music is welcoming, ethereal but deeply genuine, and delicate enough to grant listeners the space and time to really find their own sense of meaning and stillness within it.
Shadows Beneath the Moon presents a level of intrigue or mystique, something aptly lurking but still calm.
What’s interesting about these tracks is that they appear to move along and evolve as you listen, the looping aspect only really detectable when you tune into it. There’s a sense of constant growth and change to each piece, and that quality is fascinating. The idea of the music being ‘broken’ allows its underlying emotion and mood to connect in perhaps a distinctly more human fashion.
Tape Frequency is the album’s most streamed track to date, a single with a less organic piano sound – something a tad more atmospheric, rhythmically unpredictable, and engaging in a profoundly melancholic and moving way. Drops continues to engage the same level of emotion and escapism, with Fading Embers softly lightening the weight of the moment and its thoughtfulness afterwards. Then for Where the Stars Sleep, we return to a sense of quickness, mild urgency – some higher power calling out from above or all around.
Fragments of Light is modest and lo-fi trip-hop-like in its non-confronting sense of fragmented notes and moments. Then for Time Whisper, the more traditional piano sound and depth returns – the weight of the keys, the two hands dancing in unison, a level of rising anticipation uplifting the listener.
Wrapping things up is something mildly heart-breaking again – a sense of uncertainty and sadness, but also some kind of possibility or gateway to brighter moments. Again, a composition likely inviting a unique response from each listener, and completing the album in a rather divine manner.
Refreshingly purposeful, heartfelt and humble compositions, from an inquisitive musician and sound designer with a clear passion for exploring the unexplored; for creating something out of nothing purely for the soulful escapism and connection of that process. Emiliano Melis impresses and engages with Broken Piano Tapes, and the album is a deeply soothing joy to let fill the space around you.
Find Emiliano Melis on Instagram or visit his Website.
