Label: Self-released
Release date: 12.10.2018
Production: Miha Renčelj and Janez Križaj
Album length: 75:45
Miha Renčelj is a trained musician. He’s a classically educated pianist. On top of all that, he’s a composer. A creative composer, of course. “Collective Keys I” is the first installment in his announced series of piano improvisations. The man has been very active this past year, and all his followers could get a taste of it through his FaceBook page, where they could follow performances of his original music as it happened, even in live broadcasts. A piece of it has now received official confirmation. On a physical release, that is.
Miha Renčelj is no stranger to the Slovenian music scene anyway, having worked with a number of artists (Junema, Indigo, Na lepem prijazni, Tretji kanu, Intimn Frizurn,…) and left his mark on their albums.
This time he steps into a role where he’s the blacksmith of his own musical story, so in this full-blooded outing he could freely “blow up” artistically and lay himself bare. “Collective Keys I” delivers a whopping nearly 76 minutes of music rooted in the classical tradition. Miha Renčelj has packed four longer compositions onto the album, suites really, split into multiple parts, with each movement carrying its own subtitle. Tacked onto the end is Spring Awakening once more in a raw, alternative version, so there are five longer pieces on the disc in total, though the fifth can be counted as a bonus track. Honestly, if music doesn’t grab you that deeply and you don’t love discovering every last detail of the artist’s expression, you won’t even miss this alternative version.
Miha is a master of mood. That’s what makes him a one-of-a-kind artist, and it’s why his original music is so special, which is of course the whole point, the key ingredient that draws the listener in and “enchants” them. Incredibly musical, remarkably accessible. The ideas he strings together in his compositions play off each other with extraordinary harmony. The motifs he weaves through the musical landscape fuse eagerly and almost flawlessly into a wonderfully listenable conglomerate of neoclassical piano music.
If I, as a guy who comes from rock ‘n’ roll, may “bizarrely” caricature what you can roughly expect from “Collective Keys I”, I’d put it like this. Don’t go looking for Rachmaninoff’s stormy outbursts, think more of a mellow, gently caressing Schubert Impromptu. That’s just a passing pointer for what might await you on “Collective Keys I”, or what’s behind the substance of the album.
The heart of the album lies elsewhere. In the fact that Miha Renčelj has poured his feelings, passions and emotions into the message of each individual composition in an extremely sensitive and honest way. Your lush imagination will communicate superbly with Miha’s world of piano improvisation, which for an hour and fifteen minutes will turn into your very own spiritual guide. With Spring Awakening, it’s not hard to picture the first spring flowers unrolling their carpets, the playful babble of a brook swollen with melted snow and ice, or the first mating calls of the birds,… Easily sink into the mystical blue of surging emotions as pearls glint on the ocean floor, or set off on an endless journey as Miha leads you into a valley of infinite stories and takes you with him into a world of mysteries and fantasy.
In short. “Collective Keys I” is an exceptional read that you can listen to anytime, it flows so beautifully. All the gestures, movements and sensual nuances with which Miha breathes glow and charm into his compositions pour into each other beautifully and sit in an extraordinary contemplative dialogue, let’s call it a perfect symbiosis. The album speaks softly, fragile and tender. It’s dreamy, it calls out and paints mystique, and at moments it echoes playfully and exuberantly too. The production is completely organic. The album sounds natural, “live”. It also paints every emotion and passion in a way that feels tangible and real. A big part of this is the gradations of mood. A work that speaks without being pushy, wonderfully pleasant, and always stirring the listener in a proud way.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
rating: 9.0 / 10
Track list:
1. Eclipse
a. Opening
b. Dance
c. The First Touch
d. Diamond Ring
e. Totality
f. New Hope
2. Spring Awakening
a. Innocence
b. Revolution
c. Spring Fever
d. On the Doorstep of Summer
3. Pearls on the Ocean Floor
a. Sinking
b. Ocean Floor
c. Return
4. The Alley of Infinite Stories
a. Chapter I.
b. Chapter II.
c. Chapter III.
5. Spring Awakening alt. version
Line-up:
Miha Renčelj – piano
