Fabrizio Paterlini: Fragments Found

Until now, my only experience of the Italian city of Mantua is as the place of Romeo’s exile in Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet and such in my mind’s eye it has always looked uninviting, tense and had a sense of looming inevitability – even the name of the city is derived from Mantus, an Etruscan god of the underworld.  Of course, if I was ever to visit, I’m sure I would find it a vibrant, exciting – or at the very least – degage place.

Given my preconceptions about his home, I was interested to hear Fabrizio Paterlini’s recent album Fragments Found and discovered to my delight that these 10 tracks of solo piano fit nicely across both points of view.

First a little history. Paterlini is Italian born and began playing piano at the age of 6 years old and spent many years learning his craft as a classical musician.  Like many other classical musicians, his formative years found him flirting with prog, hard-rock and jazz before finally returning to a modern style of classical music at the tail end of the last century.  His debut was released in 2007 and he followed it with an e.p. in 2008.  His latest album comes hard on the heels of a album of remixes of earlier work released in 2009 and what a follow-up it is.

Fragments Found is a beautifully structured and intricately balanced collection of piano pieces that seems to owe as much to German Composer Nils Frahm and the Austrian, Franz Schubert as it does to the oft-compared Einaudi and Satie.  On first listen, Paterlini’s touch and tone is immediately apparent and his restraint is as impressive as his understanding of when to move forward.

Album opener Girasoli e Lavanda provides the album an immediate tone of reflection and on this track Paterlini uses space and the sustain pedal to create a truly beautiful ambience that stretches across the piece.  Frozen River (Part ii) uses a pedal note of D to maintain a delicate tension as the melody leads us to the track’s climax of a dramatic arpeggio.

The title track of the album, Fragments Found uses a similar structure, this time building a soft, understated melody towards a torrent of notes at its end.  Pensiero notturno is quiet and tentative like footsteps climbing stairs at midnight and the melody suggests despair.  Il Gigante e la balena is the most romantic of the collection and while certainly pretty, it feels overly sentimental compared to the darker pieces and it feels a little out of place.

Five-Thirty am is as fragile as the track title suggests it may be but is enduringly hopeful and beautiful.  Déjà Vu’s slow walk through a heavy atmosphere feels sombre but not heavy and Rue des Trois Frères, while being the shortest track on the record is arguably the most lovely with its brisk waltz it is reminiscent of Yann Tiersen’s score for Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain.

In Controvento, senz’olio, Paterlini carries the piece with the bass line while using sparing melodic phrases to push it forward and the effect is stunning.  The final track of the album, Still Travelling, pivots around a gorgeous melodic motif that is used over and again across the piece evoking a myriad of emotions before slowly fading out – an effect that gives the impression the music will continue, inaudibly, on to infinity.

All in all Fragments Found is a graceful and emotive collection of piano pieces and, from this reviewer at least, is highly recommended.  And of course, Mantua now evokes an altogether different image in my mind.

- Review by Lionel Mint for Fluid Radio

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