Pelagos

Stefano Battaglia plays both piano and prepared piano (sometimes simultaneously) in a highly attractive double-album programme that includes his own compositions and spontaneous improvisations as well as two versions of the Arabic traditional song "Lamma Bada Yatathanna". The melodic and texturally-inventive pieces, some of almost hypnotic allure, were recorded both in concert and in "closed doors" sessions at the Fazoli Concert Hall in Sacile, Italy, in May 2016, and subsequently arranged into what Battaglia describes as "a wonderful new shape with a completely new dramaturgy" by producer Manfred Eicher.