The Piano Room is the brainchild of Roman keyboardist and composer Francesco Gazzara who wrote, arranged, performed and produced all the tracks of 2084, his fourth album so far. The album was released in 2019 on the independent label Irma Records and features a long instrumental suite divided into four parts (“Prologue 2084”, “2084 Part 1”, “2084 Part 2” and “Epilogue 2084”) that, according to the liner notes, was inspired by two novels: George Orwell’s 1984 and Boualem Sansal’s 2084: The End Of The World, both dealing with dystopian stories set in an imaginary future.
The beautiful artwork by Giulio Fermetti tries to capture the atmosphere of the album and of its nightmarish sources of inspiration but as the music starts you’ll be probably drawn in a dreamy state, hypnotized by cyclic loops of notes and sounds rather than pushed into the dark abyss of rage and fear of a totalitarian world. In other words, here you can find more Genesis and Alan Parsons Project than Goblin and no metal at all. The love for Tony Banks is apparent and every now and again you can even hear echoes from the Firth of Fifth although in some way diluted by annoying drum machines and other sounds that seem be coming from the eighties...
Francesco Gazzara here plays a vast array of vintage keyboards such as Yamaha CP80 (piano), Hammond B3 (organ), Roland CR78 (drumbox), Korg MS20, Arp Odyssey, Arp 2600, Minimoog, Prophet 5, Polymoog, Moog Taurus (bass pedals), Mellotron D3000, Rhodes Mark 11 (electric piano), Kaway acoustic piano, PPG Wave, Yamaha DX7 or Arp Quadra and utilizes various software synthesizers such as U-He Diva, N1 Reaktor or LN Sylenth. Musically, always according to the liner notes, this work is also conceived as a tribute to Anthony Phillips’ album 1984 and its electronic experiments and if you like Phillips’ album I’m sure you’ll like this one as well! The pace is calm and relaxed despite the subject matter but while some passages might sound a bit tedious due to the drum machines and the lack of a real, pulsing rhythm section, the songwriting is excellent and it can be wholly appreciated by listening to the three bonus tracks containing the piano solo versions of three parts of the suite...
More info:
