Fabien Robbe - 24 Préludes (2021) Hi-Res

Fabien Robbe offers here his second album as a solo pianist, a suite of twenty-four preludes whose release coincides with a stage in his life that he sees as symbolic, the transition to quarantine. No pun intended, given the confined era in which this record appeared. These preludes, which he began to note in 2017, run through the thread between constraint and freedom. The preludes of the pioneers of this "formless form" offered a challenge, a challenge, the little stumbling block intended to stimulate creativity. This is the paradox of the prelude: as in everyday life, we set a schedule, but do we know exactly what's going to happen? Everyday life is precisely the subject of this long-term work. Fabien Robbe puts in it a lot of the places he visits, to which he returns, and of the familiars he meets. It is a truly autobiographical record. We have to imagine him as a Chopin - who did a lot to popularize the prelude - a romantic figure roaming his native region and his chosen Brittany, a keyword emerging from his impressions, a music appearing from the word- ruminated key. Moreover, he does not deny Chopin, on the contrary, he admits that it was he who put him on the piano. And he writes by hand. If that's not romanticism too ...