Anne Lovett’s stunning new release for 1631 is a departure from her beautiful previous solo piano album Beyond (and below). Without loosing any of the startling beauty of the preceding album, in The Eleventh Hour, Anne Lovett revels in a new sonic world. Joined by the London Contemporary Orchestra , UK’s most innovative and respected ensemble routinely heard alongside such luminaries as Radiohead or Johnny Greenwood, and later in duo with phenomenal cellist and composer Oliver Coates, Anne Lovett also introduces subtle electronics interwoven carefully alongside layered melodic piano lines.
The main narrative for the album was conceived shortly after a new addition was brought in to Anne’s studio, a plantation chair which sat opposite her Grotrian-Steinweg grand piano. It led to intense hours of rethinking around the instrument itself and more generally about the seismic shifts that were taking place in society. The album is an attempt to reconcile the flaws of time.
Best described by the Japanese concept of Kintsugi or “broken beauty”, The Eleventh Hour is a heartbreakingly beautiful contribution to the modern “indie” classical genre. The thirteen tracks all meticulously crafted and ringing out with a dark luminosity, like an elegy to our troubled times.
It will appeal to fans of Dustin O’Halloran, Nils Frahm, Max Richter, Philipp Glass, Jóhann Jóhannson who will find many reasons to love this album .