Riverscape

This new album from Italian pianist Paterlini is true to form in following the ambient pattern that has seen him clock up a huge number of listeners online. His music has been described as ‘cinematic’ and it is true that quite a bit of the album is more like a soundtrack than anything else. Quite what he is bringing new to an already overcrowded field is unclear, and the rather unfocused ambient noodling draws a somewhat unfavourable comparison with another pianist, Yann Tiersen, best-known for his soundtrack to Amélie. The album is centred around impressionistic depictions of a river, moving off at times into new-agey mindfulness (for example on ‘Be in the Moment’), most of it characterised by inoffensive electronic backgrounds against which the piano provides minimalist patterns or ambient splashes of colour. It is all a bit thin, but might work quite well as a background to a Pilates class.