Moinho - Baltika (CD)

I think the pianist is officially back on the list of cool musicians to be again, what with the likes of Nils Frahm and Hauschka and Dustin O'Halloran and Olafur Arnalds tinkling their way to hipness in recent years. After making an appearance on the star-studded 'Erik Satie et les Nouveaux Jeunes' comp, he's now offering up his first full-lengther, with a collection of lightly melodic minimal compositions with simple, dusky melodies and a clear deftness of touch on the ivories. It's quite emotional music but not melodramatic, instead weaving together fragments of disparate places and feelings into hazy newborn memories; nostalgia about the present, projected from the future. The simplicity of his chordplay and the emotional ebb and flow of the changes along with insistent pedal note pulses make for the most part of these compositions, but the expressiveness of the execution can't be overstated and the apparent simplicity often conceals clever and sophisticated writing that really takes you along with it. Is it bad that in places it reminds me of the piano bits from the film Donnie Darko? It sort of does, anyway, but don't let that put you off. Pretty, patient, gliding, gentle, unshowy pieces with enough emotion and personality to keep you coming back for more.