All Above by Grand River

Opening track title Quasicristallo roughly translates as 'matter formed from two different structures' (crystalline and amorphous). In the context of All Above, the third album from Dutch-Italian composer and sound designer Aimée Portioli, aka Grand River, we're talking about sound formed from two different origins: electronic and acoustic; a concept that fits the ebb-and-flow of the eight tracks presented here.

Piano, the primary acoustic element, played both directly and treated electronically throughout, brings human warmth to the music. Combined with judicious field recordings, guitars and voice, you would be forgiven for thinking this is a boldly acoustic exercise but electronic sounds (specifically synthesisers) add rhythm and structure, off-setting the organic and lending an equilibrium that cleverly avoids tension and harmony. This is best exemplified when the broken loops of quivering piano on the opening track make way for ghostly voices and a throbbing electronic bassline on Human. Or, a more general example would be the white noise textures that underpin most tracks.

All Above is a highly visual album (you can vividly picture the rain-soaked streets of Petrichor emanating from the pitter-patter of voices) with the piano as narrator, painting the scenes. It's like each track is stitched together from a myriad of materials with 'piano thread'. For example, on In The Present As The Future the first half builds gently with swishing motifs and piano notes before a throbbing rhythm emerges halfway through. And on Kura, the vocal recital, accompanied by plaintive piano chords, (around 2:30) shifts the dynamic once more. The result of these well-considered compositional techniques is dense and complex music that demands repeat listens (and ideally a good pair of headphones).