The Bandcamp player has been placed at the top of the review because this is one of those albums where you almost don’t need to read the review: as soon as you hear the music, your ear catches the groove and your body can’t help but dance. It’s by far the funkiest album I’ve reviewed for this site and I already know it will be one of my favourite of the year.
Ventas Rumba is the fifth solo album from Ezéchiel Pailhès, a French singer, pianist and composer whose work has generally focused on blending synth-pop with chanson. In 2022 a long-planned project for solo piano led to a trip to David Klavin’s studio to record on the famous Una Corda, beloved of Nils Frahm.
The gentle timbre of the Una Corda is featured prominently in the virtuosic title track, “Ventas Rumba”, but as the neon aesthetics and gentle synths of the video illustrates, this is not your typical Una Corda album. Returning from the Klavins studio in Latvia to his studio Montreuil, Pailhès added synths and digital effects, combining the various timbres in various ways, at times playful (“Opus 53”, “Flat Feet”, “Pianovado”), at times organic (“La ligne”, “Louanges”, “Sway”).
The album draws on a range of inspirations, from Messian via Chopin to Beethoven. “Opus 53”, for example, makes reference to the harmonic structure of Beethoven’s Waldstein Sonata. Despite that musical heritage, it never feels stifled by the intellectual weight of its models. In the press release Pailhès explains that the album’s title is inspired not by the Cuban dance but by the rapids (Latvian: “rumba“) of the river Ventas near the Klavins studio, and this playfully apt title is a neat analogy for the album itself: its blend of fun and seriousness gives it a refreshing depth and unpredictability. Highly recommended. (Garreth Brooke)
a closer listen 