Pianist Panayiotis Demopoulos lives in Kozani in northern Greece, where he is vice-mayor for culture and chair of a historical library board and also performs and writes about music, as well as holding a PhD in composition. This solo set of piano improvisations was recorded during a visit to Macclesfield in Cheshire, a day of hourly small adventures, recordings and drinks he sets to music and performs, as well as writing about whimsically in the sleeve notes.
Hour by hour the compositions make their appearance, some strident and overt, others more romantic and refined. Two O’Clock packs a mighty, strong punch, the violent acts of Three O’Clock are surprisingly disrupted and initially restrained before they erupt, One O’Clock is an exercise in increasing intensity, while the title track of Nina’s O’Clock fondly recalls the clock in Nina’s home that was the same as one in his own wife’s Nicola Harrington’s Glasgow home. The set ends with a delightful version of Blue Monk. As the clock hands turn so events and occasions are recalled and revisited.
Demopoulos is a demonstrative, inventive pianist, sometimes strumming the piano strings directly, his musical explorations evocative of life and experience. On the evidence of this adventurous set, he deserves a wide audience.
Discography
White O’Clock: Bad Hand; Two O’Clock: The Life Bone; Three O’Clock: Acts of Heinous Violence; Nina’s Clock: Glasgow Was; Plenty O’Clock: Leggy Pegs; One O’Clock: Then; Eight O’Clock: Careful Dominoes; Midnight: Haemon Must Pass; Fair O’Clock: The Chief and Purple Knife: Eleven O’Clock: Homebound Hiss; Monk O’Clock: Blue Tonk (56.09)
Demopoulos (p). Macclesfield, Cheshire, October 2015.
Métier Jazz MJD 72405
