Jeremy de Tolly – Piano Nocturnes Volume One


Jeremy Tolly

“Nothing but a Grand Piano. No Synths, drones, pan pipes or tubular bells. I think it’s quite different. The music is very gentle, slow and quiet, more about the space between the notes than the notes themselves.”

Jeremy de Tolly ‘s introduction is a perfect introduction and an accurate description of his solo piano album “Piano Nocturnes, Volume One” .

“These pieces express emotions that have no specific name; the songs are meant to exist in the background of your life. It’s not archetypal music of any kind. It’s not really ambient, or classical, it’s definitely not jazz. It’s not depressing, nor is it happy.”

Erik Satie et les Nouveaux Jeunes

Erik Satie et les Nouveaux Jeunes cover

I guest most people listening to ambient and ‘post-classical’ music also have a special place in their heart for the music of Erik Satie. Or at least they should have.

The eccentric genius composer, or “phonometrician” as he called himself,  “the laziest student in the (Paris)Conservatoire” (where he was labelled untalented by his teachers) has left the world some of the most impressive (and introspective) compositions – of which the Gymnopédies and the Gnossiennes are the most famous.
With his ideas about Musique d’ameublement (‘Furniture music’), Satie was one of the real predecessors of ‘ambient’ music.

So any double CD set offering reworkings of his music by some of the best artists in the contemporary experimental ambient/electronic genre immediately has my full interest!