Opus Pia

As much the accompaniment to a series of short films as a musical whole themselves, the works on Opus Pia show digital sound processor Takagi Masakatsu again taming the wilderness of experimental IDM. The result, as on his last work (simply titled Pia), is as warm and pastoral an example of electronic minimalism as the early-'70s work of Philip Glass. The title track is 15 minutes of audio bliss, with all sounds collected from piano. Re Pia 2 is similarly gorgeous, while Everything Came From Here combines unadorned piano with samples of playing children. The fifth track, Harmony, is a half-hour audio journal of Masakatsu's travels, recorded in 41 different locations from Indonesia to Cappadocia to Detroit to Trinidad. The accompanying DVD includes 30 minutes of films from the Opus Pia series. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide