Mick Chillage - Between the Endless Silence (2018)

The inimitable Mr. Chillage seems to go from strength-to-strength with each and every release, armed with a diligent, focused work ethic and a surfeit of imagination, which makes his latest Carpe Sonum Novum missive a pleasant, diverse surprise. Perhaps he's immersed himself in Harold Budd and Tim Story records, as he's chosen for this release to center his already gorgeously pealing whorls of ambient discourse around the keystrokes of the piano. But wait: lest you roll your eyes and bemoan the entry of yet another electronic musician who fancies himself a 'classical' composer, Mick's tickling of the ivories isn't mere folly or a gestural jape. Instead, the artist has, intentionally or inadvertently, created a paean to the elegaic minimalistic sides forged by Mssrs. Budd and Eno, couched in the softly irising synthetic thermals he's arranged over countless works in his formidable catalog. Between the Endless Silence isn't therefore your typical piano-centered blandishment, nor a stuffy bit of experimentation, or even it's creator's desire to abandon his chosen field. Instead, Chillage has done the next to impossible, recontextualizing the delicate filigree of the acoustic grand throughout a wonderfully luxurious fabric of electronica, refracting a veritable font of melodies that linger in the head long after the disc concludes. Had this been issued in the early '80s, it would be considered a well-established classic; we'll just assume that right now, and brandish it accordingly. Play it late at night or early in the morning; either way, it's more brilliant than the sun.