Wind And Light is a seven-track CD, which offers up extremely sparse and pared-back modern composition for piano and clarinet written by Greek composer Anastassis Philippakopoulos  So it’s very much an album for both a quiet space and quiet contemplation.

The CD appears on Elsewhere Music- a label from Jersey City USA, who focuses on releasing quietly compelling improv, modern composition, and modern classical music- with artists on the label such as the wonderfully talented French composer/ pianist Melaine Dalibert. The CD comes presented in a mini white card gatefold- this features a cover painting of  a  hazed/ barren desert landscape by Greek artist Maria Filippakopoulou, and the picture fits nicely the sparse quality of the music with-in.

The players here are  Anastassis Philippakopoulos on piano and Swiss composer Jürg Frey on clarinet. We get four tracks for clarinet, and three for piano- with these evenly blended over the album's length. The compositions here date from between the years 2009 and 2018,  with each running between three and eight minutes apiece. The flow/ feel of all the tracks is fairly similar, so as a result the album really plays best as one long and sadly lulling ride.

We have the slow haunting 'n' felt note pattern darts of “Piano Piece( 2013)”, which uses both space and natural reverb to rather eerier-to- sparsely enchanting effect. There’s the gentle swelling and hovering clarinet tones of “Song 8 For Clarinet (2012)”, where silence and space are used in a wonderful disciplined/ effective manner, as you try to recall how the patterns are varying as we move along. Or fragile and fraught mid-to-high key strikes and reverb simmer of “Piano Piece (2018b)” where you can make out drifting sub-tone mysteries from inside the instrument itself from time to time.

In conclusion, you’ll have to enjoy extremely pared-back and lulling modern composition to get the most from Wind And Light. It’s a release you have to let you self-slow down to, and lightly drift along with the sparse & skeletal repetition of the music- becoming accustomed to the subtle shifts, use of reverb, and use of space/ silence within the compositions. To buy this direct from Elsewhere head to here ..