Olivier Casassus delivers a Warm Set of Pieces
An entrancing new release from Olivier Casassus brings a unique kind of cinematic warmth and backbone that feels incredibly inviting, offering little pieces of life along the way.
The composer and pianist have created such beautiful pieces of work that spark memories of your own to pop into your head through emotional resonance, and I think this is what helps it come through with that cinematic vibe, while also allowing us to connect with music in different ways.
These are piano pieces that each represent a little bit of a different approach to melody, influence, and performance.
A lot of these songs come through soft, delicate, and moving. You can hear the essence of actual life running through its veins and how the whole thing was influenced simply by existing.
The record is called Jour Bleu and starts with a piece called "Partisan", which amazingly welcomes you to the record and such a beautiful and inviting way, by bringing those warm tonalities right up front and delivering these memorable melodies and hooks throughout it that serve as the attributes of the song that stick with you.
There's something very particular about the way these songs put you in the moment with them, yet at the same time, cause those memories of your own to pop into your head.
They are uniquely connected so that when you hear the songs, you can feel where they're coming from, even if you incorporate your own life into them.
I absolutely love how you hear the essence of classical works being thrown in there and how, in certain ways, the songs can grow in intensity and swell, before exhaling back down again.
There is a lot about these performances that lets them flow freely and gives the essence of being alive and breathing.
"Octobre" is another one that really subtly pushes boundaries so that you can tell this whole record came from some authentic place.
That emotional pull is almost always there and will affect each listener a little bit differently. I think that's part of the beauty of records like this one.
I think that's part of the beauty of records like this one. Each listener will soak it in differently. They will feel different things, think about different things, and in a certain aspect, they may change something about themselves after having music that lets them freely be so introspective without even realizing it.
This is music that lets you be vulnerable. It makes you want something that you haven't had, or feel something that you haven't felt in a long time.
In a way, it's sort of waking us up a little bit.
I think we need music like this. Music that lets us think or feel. Music that comes from someplace real and all those completely instrumental can really connect with us in different ways.
The record showcases amazing piano performances and progressions, compositions, and changes that really allow the songs to have that natural and forward-moving flow, while still giving you a wide range of emotional backbone.
I feel joy, sadness, tension, beauty, everything is there.
The EP is a debut solo record from Olivier, and I feel like these pieces resonate with a lot of us, even when we're not trying to let that happen.
Sometimes people can be afraid to let music hit them in certain ways.
I was opened up to this one. Before long, I was swimming through the beautiful and thick tones of the piano, feeling the emotions that the songs delivered, picturing all kinds of things in my head, remembering things I had forgotten, and I think that this is a record that simply beckons us to live. It lets us remember that there are plenty of moments that may slip away, but they're always there in our memory.
This was a beautifully impactful piece of work, and I suggest listening to it with headphones on so you can really take it all and properly.
The performances are passionate and heartfelt, alive and breathing, and the whole thing has a wonderful way of wrapping itself around you and letting you just get swallowed up by everything involved.
So, don't just take my word for it here. Go listen to this record now and see how it affects you.
