Suzanne Ciani - Pianissimo (1990)

After 20 years of perfecting her abilities with electronic music, Ciani turned back to the acoustic piano for this live recording of material largely taken from Neverland and its excellent followup, History of My Heart. Demonstrates that Ciani is not dependent on electricity to produce vital music.

Suzanne Ciani was one of the first and finest woman artists to make a name for herself in the world of electronic music. Ciani earned a Masters degree in composition from the University of California at Berkeley, where she studied with electronic pioneers Max Matthews, John Chowning, and Don Buchla. In 1975 she moved to New York, where she got involved in the Soho art scene, and also worked with minimalist Philip Glass. She began to hit the big time with the establishment of Ciani Musica, Inc., one of the foremost commercial production companies in the country. Ciani later expanded into film scoring and gained recognition for her work on Lily Tomlin's The Incredible Shrinking Woman as well as the award-winning feature documentary Mother Teresa. Ciani's career as a recording artist, however, took a more indirect route. Her 1982 Japanese release Seven Waves became an underground hit, prompting its American release by Private Music in 1984. Then Velocity of Love came along, which, with its intriguing synthesizer work balanced by strong melodies and pop sensibilities, helped define contemporary instrumental music and the burgeoning genre of new age. Ciani recorded steadily for Private through the 1980s and into the next decade, issuing the Grammy-winning Hotel Luna ('86), Neverland ('88), History of My Heart ('89), and the 1990 solo piano Pianissimo. In 1994 Ciani established the Seventh Wave imprint, and issued the orchestral album Dream Suite. Two years later Pianissimo II apppeared, followed by a live album in 1997. The title track of the 1999 album Turning featured vocals from Chyi-yu. Ciani took a break after third installment in her Pianissimo solo piano series, released in 2001. But she returned four years later with the ambitious studio effort Silver Ship. ~ Linda Kohanov.