Brussels-based pianist and composer Wilson Trouvé releases his brand new album Malam through KEXP broadcaster Alex Ruder’s label Hush Hush Records in May 2019…
A master of delicate nuance and understated beauty, and a brand new parent, Trouvé’s intimate piano, violin and cello playing captures the purity and enormity of both. His composition is graceful enough to reveal his astute skill and instinctual enough to reveal his natural verve, all unhurried as the passing of night and innately storytelling in delivery.
Malam was written and recorded by Trouvé in spare windows of time between his parenting duties. As these habitually fell in the evening, the record is named after the Indonesian word for night – a title suggested to him by his wife, a native of Indonesia. “Even though my mood was somehow melancholic as often when composing at night, probably due to tiredness, I was also doing my best to translate something positive and graceful into piano melodies,” Trouvé writes. “Malam suggests the idea of silence at night as a mix of thoughts and feelings which melt together. Everyone is asleep but yourself. Then a whole intimate world appears to you. I spent a huge amount of time composing this album. I needed to express something utterly personal, deep and genuine.”
While the field of contemporary classical music continues to stretch its own welcome – especially when composed for piano and strings – Malam stands distinctly apart from the hordes of soundalikes and copyists. There is a palpable humanness here, an intimate telling of stories that sing without a single word sung. Self-recorded at home, in moments of night as his wife and daughter slept, the record perfectly expresses the love of a husband and father, composing to the sounds of his family at rest: “Night is definitively the quietest place ever. Night is where creativity emerges from, where love and happiness appear, when nothing can disturb you, driven by a meaningful silence merging your mind and the stars over your head. That’s where music appears.”
Wilson caught the ear of UK music publishers Phantom Limb through his beautiful Monochromie project of subtle electronics and piano. Phantom Limb immediately offered publishing representation for his music, while Malam was being gently prepared in the background. Wilson accepted, and through their help connected with Hush Hush Records in Seattle for the release of the album.