Ombra

Reviewed by Barnaby Welch:
Critic and Associate Director of Bloomfields Management
On first listen, Pia Silvi's latest release continues down the mysterious and beguiling path of her previous albums. It is only after a few listens that the complexity, scope and dark mystery of her latest offering starts to reveal itself.

Beginning with the haunting Marina, it is clear that Pia has become more comfortable with foregrounding her ethereal vocals over the layers of rich, gorgeous sound that she has become known for, and the result is astonishing.

A more assured and confident album, Ombra also seems to be a more positive and life-affirming experience, as the second track Broken Head But All Mended Now promises.

Straddling worlds as diverse as ambient electronica, contemporary classical and hints of dance music, Ombra is an almost unclassifiable album that transcends generic convention whilst maintaining a powerful sense of purpose and integrity. Pia's lyrics on Ombra are typically startling and magical, evoking a long-forgotten mythical landscape that is somehow firmly connected to us all.

Qui Primum, the fourth track on the album, begins as a soundscape of echoed bells and evolves into a stunning vocal journey that both reflects Pia's diverse and fascinating musical interests and her determination to push the boundaries of electronic and classical music. The track is typical of an album full of quietly imaginative journeys which demand your full attention but are more satisfying with every listen.

Ombra

Richard Bone:
A beautiful and brilliant work, so many gorgeous tracks it's hard to know where to begin...Pia Silvi's art and vision seem to evolve with each release, and again, the voice....... I love Winterlude, and A Moon For Venus and Adagio For A Rainy Day and, and and.........it's all beautiful.

Ombra

Reviewed by Barnaby Welch:
Critic and Associate Director of Bloomfields Management
Another giant leap forward again this time with Ombra.  Amazing vocals, I love Broken Head But All Mended Now; 'mended and whole again' wow...... and 'falling and falling' mysterious and ambiguous with strange and beautiful layering of both instruments and vocals. 

The vocal on Marina is just so unexpected - you think you're listening to one thing and then the soaring voice comes in it's just gob smacking!  the track is like a dark fairy tale whispered to you sweetly.

I love the bell at the beginning of Qui Primum and then those voices like a choir in some forgotten land somewhere, haunting, evocative.  I love the words on Histories too, in fact I love the whole track, sort of folktronic.  The lyrics 'we're following on' so simple but what an impact, and again that wonderful Pia Silvi layering.

Ombra

Comment by A N:
"This is electronica but not as we know it!"

Virtually Handsewn

Reviewed by Richard Bone on iTunes:
I have only recently become familiar with the exquisite work of Pia Silvi but what a discovery it is! Her music is serene and cinematic, innovative yet familiar...like finding a long lost friend.

Some tracks are instrumental but it is the allure of her voice on A Boy And A River that first drew me in when I heard the track on Pia's MySpace page.

The quality of her dreamy voice is unique but could perhaps be described as being a cross between Sarah McLaughlin and Diana Krall. Her multi-tracked vocals on Warm Hearths And Sleeping Cats are beyond compare and that track is followed by the closing work, "Unsleep," which could easily be a long lost Harold Budd composition

So, Virtually Handsewn, like the best of the ambient/new age genre, is a work of true originality. Sample any of the tracks on iTunes and you'll hear what I mean....but start with A Boy And A River!

Virtually Handsewn

Reviewed by Epilepticgibbon on www.progressiveears.com
Pia Silvi has been creating sumptuous, otherworldly and spiritual electronic music, floating somewhere between classical, film soundtracks and strange electric ambient pop, for years. But with Virtually Handsewn she has really outdone herself, retaining the strangeness, beauty and experimental nature of earlier releases but with an even greater sense of charm and melody this time around.

This is arguably her most eclectic and personal release but also her most emotional and accessible CD to date. Musical moods move from the haunting “A Boy And A River” and the chilling “I Scared” through to the extremely charming “Warm Hearths And Sleeping Cats”.

Fans of Bjork, the Cocteau Twins and Brian Eno will be in musical heaven listening to this album and will no doubt be wondering why Pia isn’t as well known as those names. Easily one of the best album releases of 2008 for me and a personal career landmark for Pia.

Best tracks: “A Boy And A River”, “They Are Only Avatars”, “I Scared”, “A Night In Crakow”, “Warm Hearths And Sleeping Cats”

Virtually Handsewn

Reviewed by Barnaby Welch:
Critic and Associate Director of Bloomfields Management
STUNNING! a quantum leap from previous work. The mastering is a work of genius too and has brought out all the subtleties and layering.

The songs are beautiful, intense and haunting. I love them all but my favourite has to be They Are Only Avatars. Wow, wow,
wow! I keep on listening to it and it just gets richer and richer. Just Beautiful! I love A Night In Crakow too - so delicate with an undercurrent of deep deep sadness too. It's screaming out to be used with some kind of visual accompaniment. I Scared is dark... "men with killing machines"' goosebump territory.

It is a perfectly judged combination of live playing, electronic sounds and effects and Pia's voice. As the title of the album suggests... it sounds more like a remnant from some forgotten far away civilisation - the buried, but still audible voice in A Night In Crakow a case in point for me. The bell in Imaginary Cossacks is masterful, it gives the track a secondary rhythm, a strange sense of dislocation, like listening to two memories of the same event.

I think the track order is very strong too - the intro followed by Surf People lead you gently into this slow motion and delicate world... and then there's A Boy And A River - a track that floors you - sublime, with its mysterious and fragmented meaning which prompts you to make your own conclusions. There are no obvious connotations in this album in fact; every thought and
interpretation of the music is correct, meaning seems to creep up on you; it is not dictated, creating a space - something the cover does too, and something that in our visual world is SO difficult!

Cipher is like the therapeutic centre of the album, a release, a celebration, a positive and energetic track, cathartic confusion - I think, the way that African tribal rites with repetitive beats and
frenetic dancing somehow lead to a state of inner peace, something that is developed in the next two tracks.

I thought of Bjork's Raise Your Flag Higher, Higher, it is a similar sense for me - a building sense of disappointment and anger at the world, that is spoken, shouted out, in some hope that death, destruction and anger will dissipate.

With Virtually Handsewn Pia Silvi has also found confidence in her most beautiful and fragile instrument - her voice. This album will be playing on my itunes for some time...

Virtually Handsewn

What others have said about the album:
"Virtually Handsewn marks something of a turning point by comparison to Pia's earlier work as this time her voice - and it is some voice - is much more in evidence. The album is full of new sounds, as well as the layers and unusual beats that are her trade marks. More layers, warm chords, a range of voices, many of which belong to Ms Silvi herself, unusual and diverse beats, beautiful and unusual textures and instruments virtual or otherwise, it's actually impossible to tell. There are still those 'picture titles' though and in a sense they often provide the clue to what you are listening to."

"There is mystery, subtle political, social and environmental references, as well as the introduction of her voice as "a much more audible instrument" as Pia herself puts it. In particular, on the heart stopping and ambiguous sadness of A Boy And A River, and the ambient late night feel of Only The Rain Came,
which is a short, but sharply observed tale of misguided romantic hopes, the opening line being 'a table set for two unlikely people'.

"I Scared, another vocal track, is a very complex song, both musically as well as technically. Pia undoubtedly pulls it off on this one with the dark and menacing beats and her stunning arrangement, very fluid and actually quietly remarkable, like a lot of the tracks on this album in fact.

"Other things that really strike you are her obviously diverse musical influences. This was there in the sounds created on her debut album Atmosferiks in 2002, and subsequent releases, but maybe that diversity is more concentrated on this album as there are thirteen tracks."

"She draws from a rich musical landscape, and is quite clearly comfortable whether she is producing/singing what we might call contemporary classical music, or whether she is doing her version of trance, dance, jazz, world or whatever.

"Pia Silvi also has a love of rhythm, especially eastern style rythmes and, as on her previous releases, gives you her particular take on them on this album too. Also, you sometimes have to remind yourself that what you are listening to is the work of one person. Everything you hear is Pia Silvi, and if not actually her, then programmed by her, as she produces every single sound you hear, so it's still down to her creative judgement."

"The addition of her voice on this album seems to give it even more depth somehow, rather like an organic soul. There are times when you listen to her voice and you just think that it is unbelievably beautiful, haunting and intense, it can make you cry, make you ponder and definitely makes you want to keep
listening."

"Already there are certain tracks that seem to be having quite an impact, especially A Boy And A River, They Are Only Avatars, I Scared and A Night In Crakow."

You can read what Pia says about all the tracks under the section Music Notes.

You can also listen to samples of tracks from Virtually Handsewn and Pia's other releases under the Listen Now section where a free track, Song For The Moon With Cello, previously unreleased, can also be downloaded.

The Meditations

Reviewed by Ian Fairholme:
“This is the second EP from the highly talented Pia Silvi and this one’s the more ‘classical’ of the two, though that term is rather an arbitrary one and doesn’t really begin to do justice to the incredibly beautiful and contemporary music on offer here.

There are just three tracks, the meditations of the EP’s title, and each provides a very different soundscape to be explored, though the overall tone is both consistently contemplative and spine-tinglingly charming.

The use of digital choir arrangements and other choral elements throughout the EP does give it a broadly classical feel, but I would prefer to describe this music as supremely spiritual. The tracks are like the aural equivalent of a peak spiritual experience and, for me at least, each took me to a place that was both otherworldly and distinctly familiar and comforting.

You could well imagine this music reverberating around some grand, ancient Cathedral, or it could equally accompany the unique landscapes of an alien planet, but the greatest joy, as with any really special music, is finding what mental images it evokes for you personally.

Pia continues to map out her own personal ambient universe and it’s a breathtaking, intimate and joyous place. I can’t wait to explore it further.”