Ripples on the Surface

Releasing music since 2006, Tiago Sousa is one of most talented and heartfelt pianists of his generation. His compositions are soulful, generous, and mindful. He has released records on Immune, Discrepant and for years oversaw Merzbau, a visionary Portuguese label that inspired many of his generation in the mid-2000s. After years of flirting, we are very happy to announce his first release on Holuzam, “Ripples On The Surface”.

The opener “Sunflowers” knocks on the door of Steve Reich – “Music For 18 Musicians” – and Manuel Göttsching if he had forgotten to press “house mode on” on “E2-E4”. It is new ground for the pianist Tiago Sousa. He has spent the last decade and half building momentum for this, breaking from a classical/contemporary aesthetic to a composition layered with minimalist and mechanical ideas that manifest Tiago Sousa talent at his best.

“Ripples On The Surface” follows the first volume of “Organic Music Tapes” (Discrepant / Sucata Tapes), a series which the musician will be trying different approaches to the piano aiming for a more organic sense of creating music. Not that his music needed more heart, but it is admirable that he keeps pushing boundaries and he is at a stage in his career that he can attempt grandiosity with a piece like “Sunflowers”.

Mind-blowing at least, so much that what comes after seems to acknowledge that. The next three tracks – “Red Pine”, “Blossoms” and “The Time Binder”, with an “Interlude” in the middle – are more calm, relaxing, forcing you to come down from the peak escalated with “Sunflowers”. It is a subtle descent into reality, all part of the whole. “Ripples On The Surface” is, also because of that, his most accomplished record to date.