It’s tricky in these days of so many musical genres to come create a music that is both original and alluring. Playing piano, modular and iPad, composer Darren Pickering successfully breeds together soundscapes with improvisation and jazz pulses on this album with Mitch Dwyer/g, Pete Fleming/b and Mitch Thomas/dr.
There’s a delicacy to his deliberate duet with Dwyer on the opening “Oneroa Bay” that mixes dreamy impressions with sophisticated conversation. Likewise the understated use of electronics on pieces such as “Bibo No Aozora” and “La Perla (For Benjamin)” display the ideas of ambience, but with a heart. There is space within the textures for solo expressions, with Fleming featuring his ideas on the panoramic “Intimate” and the Pickering fragrant on the lyrical and optimistic “Mazwati Tea”. The team bops a bit on “Interlude A” and is soulful on a rich groove for “Interlude B”, but most of the time, pastels mixed with felt markers make for textured portraits.