Dan Melchior - Hill Country Piano

Another twist in the tale of Dan Melchior with a solo piano record that presents new dimensions of an artist already with more corners than most. Melchior has recorded so much for so many different labels, Hill Country Piano really should come as no surprise, yet somehow it manages to carry with it a genuine sense of the unexpected. Absent are any connections to the man's bruising garage rock persona, replaced almost entirely by unconventional piano playing that, aside from the introduction of a wonky banjo on opener 'Sparrow Song', leans into a hypnotic, mediative haze, heavy with in-room sound and late-evening contemplation. Melchior is UK born, and has lived in the US for nearly a quarter century, yet there's a European grace to these recordings, something you might consider alongside Pascal Comelade's Sentimientos, Les Disques du Crepuscule's Fruit of the Original Sin comp or any number of outliers on the Pôle label. Which is to say, there's no box that seems about to contain renaissance man Melchior.