Nick Storring: Music from 'Wéi' 成为 (Orange Milk Records/digital outlets)

Cellist/composer Nick Storring is based in Toronto and this six-part collection was created as choreography music to accompany a dance piece by his frequent collaborator Yvonne Ng.

That said, its ambient quality, the sometimes deftly discordant approach and the subtle use of sounds dug from the innards of the pianos – as well as the electronic manipulation of the upright and grand used – make for a stand-alone album of unexpected moods where melodies peep through and atmosphere is further explored through somewhat ethereal washes of electronics.

While there can be considerable emotional tension here – as befits music from a dance-drama – there is also considerable beauty and excitement as the sounds morph, ebb, rush in like oceanic sweeps or rest easy in a kind of meditative space.

This is experimental music at its finest where the composer is on a journey but carrying his listeners, not as passengers but as fellow travellers on a voyage of emotion and sonic discovery.

Often music for dance or theatre (or even the sound design for films) doesn't have much resonance without the accompanying art.

This album, and Storring's visionary approach to piano, is a wonderful and rare exception which can be as seductively engaging as it is challenging and enjoyably demanding.

Really quite something, and another album in Elsewhere's sojourns to Further Outwhere.

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You can hear and buy this album at bandcamp here