Articles
Christopher Tignor
Spotlight 13

Albums
Advanced Dreams
Federico Albanese
Matthew Barlow
Bruno Bavota
Black Unicorn
Bolder
Borghi & Teager
Carla Bozulich
Chris Campbell
Colo
Deadbeat / Paul St Hilaire
Detroit Swindle
Donato Dozzy & Nuel
Yair Etziony
Lewis Fautzi
Hammock
Mark Harris
Hideyuki Hashimoto
Kodomo
Listening Mirror
Lost Trail
Lucy
Machine Code
Yann Novak
Opitope
Origamibiro
Pinkcourtesyphone
Michael Robinson
Mariano Rodriguez
Dana Ruh
Janek Schaefer
Sketches for Albinos
Jakob Skøtt
Talk West
Christopher Tignor
Wen
Scott Worthington

Compilations / Mixes
Generation Hyper
Sharam Jey

EPs / Singles
Children of the Stones
Dexima
Dexta & Hyroglifics
dock 1
Dream Weapons
Dr.Res
FFM Vol. 2 EP
Glory Club
Nightstalker EP

Bruno Bavota: The Secret of the Sea
Psychonavigation

It would be hard to imagine a prettier collection of music crossing one's path than Bruno Bavota's latest, The Secret of the Sea. The Italian pianist-composer's third album (issued in a 300-copy run with the CD housed inside an ejector case) casts a loving eye upon his Naples home-town and the sea's waves and rocking movements. Certainly he's not the first to have drawn inspiration from such subject matter—Debussy's La Mer and Ravel's Une barque sur l'océan both spring readily to mind—but Bavota is less preoccupied, one presumes, with creating something sui generis than sharing with prospective listeners a personalized and heartfelt homage.

And it truly is a personal project, with Bavota the one solely responsible for all of the forty-two-minute recording's compositions and sounds. Though he's established himself as a pianist, he also plays guitar (acoustic and electric) on the album, and uses delay and reverb to help bring its eleven songs to life. A typical Bavota setting is rooted in strong melodies and radiates joy, melancholy, and wistfulness in equal measure. Piano playing often occupies a given song's center and when not presented alone is augmented by guitar. There are also, however, pieces where the guitar assumes the dominant role with the piano assuming a more secondary part (e.g., “If Only My Heart Were Wide Like the Sea”). Those distinctive melodic gifts are on full display in a soothing setting such as “Me and You,” while listeners with an appetite for solo piano playing will find their appetites well-sated by pieces like “Les nuits blanches” and “Plasson.” His is a consistently harmonious sound, and one often uplifting, too, as dramatic pieces such as “The Man Who Chased the Sea” and “Northern Lights” illustrate.

Song titles like “The Boy and the Whale” and “The Man Who Chased the Sea” suggest that Bavota approaches his music with the mindset of a story-teller, someone intent on distilling a sweeping narrative into concise musical form. Given how melodically expressive his music is, Bavota would appear to be a natural candidate for film soundtrack composing, while his propensity for crafting music generally free of despair and sunny in disposition suggests that he also would be a natural at composing music for children's projects. In fact, there are moments during the album when Bavota's music could conceivably be mistaken for something by Amélie soundtrack composer Yann Tiersen, an equally strong melodicist.

March 2014