With years of classical studies (including those with Aldo Ciccolini) and concert experience under his belt STALTERI has also been known to venture into more popular waters especially in his performances with historic Italian prog-rock group Pierrot Lunaire in the 1970s. Boasting a long list of collaborations with both foreign (Alvin Curran, Roger Eno, Harold Budd, David Sylvian) and Italian artists including singer-songwriters (Grazia Di Michele, Rino Gaetano) STALTERI has always added his own partticular touch of class to their recordings.
On Child Of The Moon STALTERI presents ten compositions inspired by the moon and one by the sun. While STALTERI’s playing on this recording is highly evocative, estranging and indeed lunar, he also distances himself from similar post-minimal piano music by virtue of the rigor and articulation of his structures, with a sound that is at once captivating and densely textured, full of experimental daring and charged with a sense of risk. Though the music’s classical references sometimes lean towards Debussy with a nod in the direction of Satie, these are just nuances indicating at most a consanguinity of taste, a metabolization of elements of the tradition that express themselves almost unconsciously: the same goes for his fascination with minimalism.
STALTERI’s “nocturnes” have a playfully reflexive dimension, the moon is always full and generous wherever it chooses to shed its light. But for STALTERI the search for an open, communicative sound doesn’t mean renouncing emotional expressiveness, Deep feeling lies hidden in these folds. Child of the Moon can thus happily shrug off any accusations of superficiality. It is rather a significant chapter in the career of an artist who has managed to find an original point of equilibrium between different musical pahthways.
Arturo Stàlteri - piano
PAOLO BONFANTI & MARTINO COPPO - You Were Right
from the CD "Pracina Stomp"
