aaamusic | On 27, May 2011

The re-issue of Vorleben will be Dustin O’Halloran’s second release for FatCat’s post-classical imprint, quickly following his arresting new Lumiere album, released in February 2011 to rapturous reviews.

A live album of solo piano pieces, recorded in concert in the beautiful church Grunewald of his adoptive hometown Berlin, Vorleben demonstrates O’Halloran’s abilities as both pianist and composer. It is as stately, elegant and hushed as it’s setting, full of held notes and chords that resonate with the utmost expressiveness. The product of a bright and wholly singular talent, Dustin’s music has roots in the Bach, Satie or Chopin piano solos of traditional classical music, whilst employing strong and unique tones of ambient music, post-rock and dream-pop.

All the pieces here are taken from Dustin’s two solo records – Piano Solos vol. 1 and Piano Solos vol. 2*, released in 2004 and 2006 respectively – but are recognisably accorded different nuances to their studio album counterparts. Though his music is undeniably imbued with a sorrowful melancholia, there is a further purity and reverence in the completely unamplified performance here – perhaps not least because shortly before performing this concert, Dustin received news that his grandmother had passed away.

Vorleben was initially released in April 2010 on Berlin’s limited-pressing boutique label Sonic Pieces as a 400-copy CD edition housed in the label’s characteristically delicate and involved packaging. Even this small run of CD’s generated some astonishing reviews and press coverage.

A synaesthete, self-taught pianist from the age of 7, O’Halloran’s personal histories give us some clue to the thickly-woven tapestries of his music: he has lived in LA (where he studied art at Santa Monica College and formed the much-adored alt. pop duo Devics with Sara Lov), Italy (in the depths of rural Emilia Romagna) and now Berlin. He began writing piano solo pieces to satisfy a creative impulse not sated by Devics. Intially these piano suites – written and recorded on a beautifully-restored 1920’s Sabel piano – were quietly and privately pieced-together in his Italian farmhouse, and gradually grew into fully-formed solo pieces as Dustin’s ambitions and designs developed. The path would eventually lead him to Lumiere’s majestic, swooning ensemble arrangements, but not before committing these live versions of the Piano Solos pieces to Vorleben. Significantly, the title translates from German as ‘past life’.

Having gained serious recognition with his stunning scores to Sofia Coppola’s 2006 film Marie Antoinette, William Olsen’s An American Affair (2010) and this year Drake Doremus’ Sundance-winning Like Crazy (2011), Dustin has quickly become one of the most recogniseable names in the broad-reaching “post-classical” field, helping to define the genre rather than allowing it to define his work. Now placed alongside peers and friends Max Richter, Hauschka and Johann Johannsson (the later whom cidentally, aided Dustin in mixing Lumiere) on FatCat’s dedicated orchestral imprint 130701, his music is destined to pique the ears of fans of contemporaries Nico Muhly, Peter Broderick, Nils Frahm (who engineered on both Lumiere and Vorleben) and Goldmund, not to mention his label-mates.

Already an established live artist, having toured the US with Hauschka, sold out LA’s prestigious Getty Museum and performed at NYC’s Guggenheim for their 50th Anniversary Gala and Kandinsky retrospective, O’Halloran will be performing across Europe, the UK, US and China / Japan in support of Vorleben.