VIRGO RECORDS 21st August 2026
This is an unusual album and that makes it welcome. Pure acoustic piano from the man who recorded ‘Formica Blues’ back in the nineties with his band, Mono (no, not the Japanese noiseniks). Back then, there was a retro-French twist to the samples and trip hop flavours. Now there are definite French influences in some of the melodies and frequently the feel of an eighties French art movie – one set in a giant echoing loft space to a warehouse.
With a classical training at the Guildhall School of Music, the piano has always been a feature and carried him through a career in composing ads and working in pop. “I came to the point a couple of years ago when I wanted to create something that was completely stripped of all the frippery and distractions of modern production techniques,” says Martin Virgo.
All the tracks on ‘Ghost Piano’ were recorded live on a Steinway grand piano, with the only addition being a cello on the title track. Played by Nick Cooper from The Michael Nyman Band, it makes some unusual noises alongside the comforting resinous textures expected. The space around the piano sound is great – lively for things like the tango but wide enough for the thoughtful wander elsewhere.
I hear pensive figures in the opener, piano melodies scattering in fin-de-siecle Paris streets on an icy day. Each piece creates images like this if I let my ears listen to the sound the same way my eyes look at clouds. Full of melodies and movement, the result is a dreaming space, one that closed eyes will open the ears to, but also one that soundtracks the day, of images seen through a train or bus window. Rescued from the tyranny of the bass beat, different shapes pass within the melodies.
Ross McGibbon