Tom Blankenberg – et – CD

It’s March 2020 and the sudden silence of spring that year changes the entire world and shifts perception.
The Düsseldorf-based composer Tom Blankenberg had just finished recording his second album. But the situation at hand had however made the recordings sound unfitting to the times …

“There was too much in it …” Blankenberg continues to write, rearranges and condenses the silent presence of these months down to an essence. Shortstories, utilizing a vocabulary from classical, jazz, avant-garde and ambient. They tell of a new day-to-day life, of rediscovered places and suddenly audible ambient sounds. They are about the first warm summer nights and the writing of a letter that has long wanted to be written. And also a little about sorrow. “It should hurt in some moments. But it’s a sweet pain, it’s bearable.” These ambivalent simultaneous emotions pervade the whole album. Melancholy and wellbeing, lightness and severity resound at the same moment. Ambiguity dissolves.

The results are 9 wonderful piano monologues that want to whisper something different into the ear of each listener and that become a sincere companion for the moment you listen. Blankenberg’s second album is called “et”.

„et is a nighttime masterpiece… we only harm ourselves if we ignore it. This is an essential album, it needs to be heard…” – piano and coffee co

„ … his music really stands out from the rest… His control of space, time, silence and sound — such as in “kashmir” — is bliss.“ – Doug Thomas

„et füllt den Raum mit etwas, das nur mit dem Wort „Schönheit“ umschrieben werden kann.” – D-dorf Pop Day

…

01. acnor – 3:36

02. hibiskus – 4:31

03. less – 3:02

04. W123 – 6:40

05. katzaki – 1:53

06. dear – 7:30

07. kaschmir – 8:51

08. meniskus – 4:58

09. SLAS – 2:07

released April 16, 2021
composed & performed by Tom Blankenberg
recorded at van heys studio, kleve

except „kaschmir“ and „SLAS“ recorded at studio bock, düsseldorf
mixed and mastered by Kai Blankenberg

design by tg mauss, düsseldorf