Richard Pellegrin: Passage

Passage is an improvised piano album by Rich Pellegrin, a continuation of his solo album Solitude (OA2, 2021). Both Solitude and Passage were recorded during the same sessions in summer 2019 at Langley Methodist Church (Langley, WA). After multiple releases from Pellegrin's quintet, these two solo albums stand out as an intimate and vulnerable exploration of self. The artist paints it as "a narrow route through a difficult terrain." Passage invites listeners on a journey of passing life, death, and rebirth—whether it is a human life cycle or a much longer geotectonic life cycle.

While all the tracks on the album are freely improvised "with no preconceived idea," as Pellegrin writes in the liner note, one cannot stop admiring the beautiful craft of the organization of Passage. Pellegrin masterfully captures moods and composes cinematic sceneries. In this album, one can notice some Keith Jarrett vibes (for example, in the opening and closing tracks, "Improvisation I" and "Improvisation XXX"), as well as many "Bachian" influences (such as in "Improvisation XIV," "Improvisation XVI," and "Improvisation XXIX"). Pellegrin's percussion background is particularly noticeable in "Improvisation XVIII" (which also echoes "Improvisation XI" from Solitude) and in "Improvisation XX."

Pellegrin has an authentic and recognizable musical language that has become more prominent in his solo works than in the quintet settings. In Passage, he beautifully combines the complexity of harmonies and counterpoint with the simplicity of melodic ideas and sometimes purely minimalistic sound. He is a deep thinker at the piano, a philosopher who does not play to show off but to reflect on the complexity of humankind.

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