Tim Bruer: Love Letters: Compositions For Solo Piano

The music on Australian pianist Tim Bruer's Love Letters: Compositions For Solo Piano have simple beginnings. For example, a chord that Bruer loved—one which came about via his "messing around" with a keyboard sound that caught his ear—then developed quickly, with little tweaking, into its completed form; a composition was born

Bruer loves sounds and, in the build-up to Love Letters, he decided to go with a spontaneous approach to composition, a "letting it happen" way of molding those sounds which have prodded him into shaping them into full-blown tunes.

Solo piano: no musical expression so beautifully conveys the artist's soul as those black and white keys, those hammers and strings, the limitless harmonies. Bruer's serene joy and his calm, measured appreciation of the moment in music are showcased here in nine "Love Letters" plus "Tim's Pop Song."

On a set that stays in a gentle, cohesive roll from start to finish, the most striking aspect is the pure beauty of the compact and concise compositions. These could be sacred pieces, wordless psalms, explorations of the spiritual, delvings into the deeper meanings of things, as interpreted by the listener. Even Bruer's "Tim's Pop Song" seems to lift things above the temporal.

Strong melodies are key to the disc's success. Bruer's writing on these ten compositions is first-rate, unfailingly. Harmonically, the music is somewhat spare and uncluttered, with rich and understated complexity which enhances and maintains focus on the melodic storylines and Bruer's seemingly innate positivity. This is music about things Bruer loves. He expresses this emotion with simple, uplifting eloquence in these solo pieces which draw from the artist's jazz and classical influences.

Comments