Zoon van snooK :: Se•pa•ra•ción (Lo Recordings)

Although this album is vastly different from the meandering, playful electronics his fans might be used to, there are similarities if you listen closely. Each piece is more like a musical postcard, rather than a complete piece of music.

Each piece is a musical postcard

There’s been a lot of brilliant piano based albums during 2020/2021 most likely due to lockdown and people having more time to reflect and this is what Zoon van Snook is attempting here, too. As the album title would suggest. Unfortunately though, this album isn’t one of them.

Zoon van SnooK has been around for quite some time now. He started his music career as a pop music technology lecturer at a college in Bristol, England. For those in the USA, that’s akin to a community college and from the skills he’s honed from lecturing, he’s managed to carve out something of a career for himself with releases on a variety of quality labels.

The majority of the pieces on this album are short and unfortunately the sound from the piano conjures up memories of TV background music from shows like Cheers and Frasier. If I close my eyes, I can actually see Kelsey Grammar playing the piano. Billy Joel would also give a thumbs up to this sound.

Some of the pieces introduce his more electronic side and again, they just don’t sit well with this style of piano and the vocal samples used seem misplaced and redundant. The press release mentions how much he enjoys working with a grand piano, maybe it’s my ears, maybe it’s the way it’s been mastered, but for me, this isn’t a grand piano, it’s a VST. Not that there’s anything wrong with that though. Much of the samples came from his travels around the world, which manages to juxtaposition the intention of the album with the actual outcome. Even though the travels were pre-lockdown, an album about isolation and separation which is rich with samples from across the globe just doesn’t chime, aesthetically or politically considering the current climate.

Although this album is vastly different from the meandering, playful electronics his fans might be used to, there are similarities if you listen closely. Each piece is more like a musical postcard, rather than a complete piece of music, the progressions are somewhat labored and fail to properly resolve themselves. The final piece on the album is the most ambitious, but the flute sounds terribly out of place. It’s like another piece of music simply layered over the piano and some random, distant voices thrown into the mix for good measure.

It’s an aspirational album from the artist but unfortunately, the style of piano he is attempting to play doesn’t match his ability as a pianist.

Se•pa•ra•ción is available on Lo Recordings. [Release page | Bandcamp]