Federico Albanese is back on tour presenting his third full-length album By The Deep Sea, released on Neue Meister this February. ‘By The Deep Sea is a state of mind in which I find myself quite often,’ says Albanese. ‘It’s a sort of meditation state, when I try to detach myself from the daily life. In this inner world there is space to get closer to our deepest thoughts, ideas, doubts, close enough to see them clearly, from the right distance, and being able to process them, exorcise them, translate them into something else.’
By The Deep Sea is a work of remarkable nuance, elegance and, naturally, depth. Albanese provides its crucial instrument, piano, as well as a host of others, including Rhodes piano, synthesisers, Hammond organ, electric, acoustic and bass guitars, plus field recordings. ‘I’ve been working quite a lot on synths and arpeggiators, loops and effects to process the piano sound,’ he elaborates. ‘It’s so beautiful to experiment and create layers underneath it. I wanted a feeling of evolution, something that could represent the idea of getting closer and closer to a deep state.’
Federico Albanese’s musical versatility is shown by his natural gift that pushes him to explore music in all its facets. The Italian composer’s compositions are airy and cinematic, blending classical music, electronica and psychedelia. His highly acclaimed debut solo album The Houseboat and the Moon (2014) has been described as ‘pure gold’ and ‘one of the most beautiful modern classical albums of the past years’. Albanese’s second album The Blue Hour (2016) came out via the legendary Berlin Classics and its newly launched label Neue Meister. With this record Albanese enhanced the overall sound image even further, with its mixture of compositional precision and dreamlike fluidity. With piano and synthesisers joined by a cello, which when magnified by over-dubbing and sound effects, was culminated into a chamber orchestra. Following the release of The Blue Hour, Albanese performed numerous concerts across Europe including Womad Festival, Montreux Jazz Festival and over the pond at SxSW in Austin, Texas.
