BEN CHATWIN

I admit, I have a soft spot for ambient. Even if I’m aware that most artists are just copying classic Eno-sounds, I fall for it, and it happens (even if it’s once in a while) that I discover composers who do it differently, and add something new to the genre.

So far I never heard from the Edinburgh-based composer Ben Chatwin, or neither of his project Talvihorros, even if he’s a quite known underground artist in the Scottish neoclassical world.

His newest album Heat & Entropy is the second one under his own name and it is a real gem in the genre. He likes to experiment with his piano, like attaching metal on the strings so they have a more percussive sound. By using some unusual instruments like a bowed mandolin, or a dulctione which is a 19th century keyboard with hammers, Chatwin creates a whole unique world of piano compositions that comes close to early 4-AD artists, especially what Pieter Nooten did on Sleeps With The Fishes.

By reading all this, you might think this is music only will be liked by neoclassical fanatics, but that’s not the case. If you’re just after some beauty in music, then you definitely find it here.

Didier BECU
10/12/2016