German pianist and composer Florian Ross shows two sides of his musical persona on these recent releases.
Ross plays fm synthesizer grand piano and electric keyboards in a trio setting with Dietmar Fuhr/b, Fabian Arends/dr and guest Paul Heller/ts on this richly varied collection of moods. With Heller’s warm tenor, the team is dreamy and lyrical on “Miasma” and graceful for “Calm.” The trio gets a bit kinetic with the leader at the keys on an angular “Spamtrails,” spacy on an eerie “Slow Thinker” and rocking on “Friction” while on acoustic piano, they get post bop sleek on a snappy “Trip-Wire” and swinging with some spice on a swaying “No Pun Intended.”
The quintet team keeps Fuhr on bass, and is supplemented with ethereal vocaiist Kristin Berardi along with Matthew Halpin/ts-ss and Hans Dekker/dr on twelve pieces that are highly poetic in format and delivery. Ross mixes his own material with Irish air’s like “the folksy and intimate “The Lark in the Clear Sky” that has rich piano and voice charmings. Robert Louis Stevenson gets a rich read by Berardi on a pastoral “Swallows” and Longfellow is featured on a bluesy “Horologe of Eternity” featuring Halpin’s rich tenor and Berardi’s misty voice.. The team gets a bit edgy on “Kolibri” while most of the time soft watercolors are provided by Ross and Halpin’s soprano sax melding with voice as on the flowing “Midway.” A real subtle grace.