Chilly Gonzales - Solo Piano II

Chilly provides more than just a rehash of old ideas on this follow-up; this is piano music for modern hipsters - and everyone else too.

Eight years on from its delicate, widely revered predecessor, Chilly Gonzales returns to the keys after one of the most interesting career journeys of modern times.

Now the go-to man for piano compositions for the likes of Drake, Feist and Daft Punk, Gonzales’ second bite of the solo piano apple features 14 deceptively simple-sounding compositions.

The larger-than-life musical chameleon locked himself into Paris’ Studio Pigalle for 10 days for this; the results are delicate, poised, often filmic. A fluidity and keen sense of timing pervades the likes of opener White Keys, but the straight-backed Escher feels anachronistic in comparison.

Gonzales doesn’t dwell on this period drama style though, preferring a louche, lightly seductive atmosphere.

The playing is effortless, the notes sustained or abruptly cut with a judicious ear, the rhythms are varied and the sense of narrative in the likes of Nero’s Nocturne almost uncanny. This is your late night listening sorted.

4 stars