Earlier this summer, French pianist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist Dominique Charpentier released an EP consisted of five songs each of which was developed in less than two hours. He chose this format as an experiment in form and a personal challenge. While compressing the creative process into a fixed time always risks an uncertain outcome, in this case it produced an enchanting quintet of piano-based pieces with a touch of melancholy and a touch of musette so as to weave a spell of melancholic and nostalgic romance in the space of twelve minutes.
Inspired by the music, the folks at Piano & Coffee have created a video to accompany songs using a montage of grainy, sepia-toned footage shot around a bustling 1970’s Paris turning “Esquisse IV” into a plaintive scrapbook of shared memory.
Esquisses is a digital release featuring artwork by Anna Salzman whose work may also be familiar to readers of the blog from her collaborations with Garreth Broke on 1631 Recordings. Copies of the EP as well as the sheet music can be ordered from Dominique’s Bandcamp page.
Links: ‘Esquisses’ on Bandcamp  |  Dominique Charpentier on the web
Stationary Travels 
plaintive and very beautiful, made more poignant by the film
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