Coming from the land of the Vikings, with influences like Vali and October Falls, Braxius sure had some big shoes to fill when they released their debut album back in 2020. On their latest single, “Winter”, the piano version, how do they fare? Keep reading for my thoughts!
“Winter” is a piano paraphrase of the acoustic movement “Tél” from the debut album “É(v)szak” by pianist and composer Gleb Belyaev, and here, there is just something that brings one tranquillity and an indescribable inner peace when the whistling winds resound through their headphones– and on “Winter”, well, this seems apt; with the whistling, yet gentle wind immediately transporting me to the edge of the brutal Nordic mountains, while the piano doing steady battle with the wind instils a sense of grandeur, of just pure epicness (if that even is a word) in you. There are no lyrics to impede the sheer virtuosity on the piano here– as octaves and passages melt into each other, you’re left wondering at a confluence of a flurry of emotions.
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As the track builds, the Bösendorfer piano really comes into something of its own, the warm, full-bodied sound poncing through the mix to strike a chord (literally) in the heart of anybody listening; and mind you, the expressiveness, the vivacity with which the piano is played here, which is worth talking about wholly on its own, in my opinion. For now, on “Winter”, the mix manages to tame and blend this instrument beautifully into the atmosphere, which, I will note, is a faithful recording of winds up north. The result is an expanse of space for the instrument to breathe, and might I say, it gets made use of exceptionally well.
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“Winter” just goes to show that there’s no replacement for sheer musicianship, and the same shines through with just how many stories can be told with just two hands on the piano; and nigh on nothing else. The highest registers of the piano exude a sense of icy fragility, almost, creating elements of drama and leaving this track a deeply moving statement to the theme it set out to publish in the first place. Check out the track here!
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