Ryan Teague — Four Piano Studies

Ryan Teague is a British multi-instrumentalist composer who integrates electronics with acoustic instrumentation, and has released minimalist modern classical works on labels such as Type and Sonic Pieces, as well as created music for various TV and film productions.  This release of his, "Four Piano Studies" is a stripped down, unthemed collection that is over in less than 12 minutes.

Stylistically, they seem patterned off Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata", or Chopin's nocturnes, minus his characteristic embellishment.  Teague gently and evenly arpeggiates a series of simple minor chords with an introspective, melancholic feeling.  His playing is elegant and the tone of the piano is pure and rounded, with just a hint of dust in the strings.

In the latter half of each piece, he harmonizes the chords with something of a lead melody.  He doesn't play any unexpected or dissonant notes, almost as if he chose to make these pieces diatonic as possible in keeping with their being 'studies'. 

The modesty and simplicity of this release, clearly intended to be its appeal, are unfortunately its curse: it has no distinguishing features what-so-ever, at least to my ears.  It makes pleasant enough background music, but I'd much rather hear it during the credits of a sad movie, where it seems like it belongs.

I feel that any but the most devoted fans of film music and modern classical composers would have a more enjoyable and rewarding time simply listening to some Beethoven or Chopin, and even so, the only thing distinctly filmic about these pieces is that they seem designed not to fully engage one's attention on their own.  Ryan Teague may well have created some great music elsewhere, as he's clearly a competent enough musician, but it feels like whatever creativity he has was utterly restrained by the modesty of this project.  I can't say I'll be listening to it again.