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Artist: Olivia Belli
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Olivia Belli:

Intermundia

XXIM Records is proud to announce the release of Intermundia, the new album from award-winning Italian pianist and composer OLIVIA BELLI. Her second full length release for the label, Intermundia sees the acclaimed pianist go beyond her deep connection to the natural world to explore the spiritual side of nature, something beyond the physical – the world of thin places. 

Deeply spiritual, these locales are places to soothe, beguile and enchant, and where Belli says: “It is only you and your soul.” For Intermundia, BELLI chose eight locations, all very close to her home in Le Marche, and all very personal. Like the Colle dell'Infinto, inspiration for latest single ‘Mirando’ and the place where the great poet Giacomo Leopardi conceived his masterpiece, ‘L'Infinito’. “This ‘endless space’ has a profound stillness,” says BELLI. “It allows us to catch a glimpse of infinity, and gently abandon ourselves to it.”

That piece’s melodic lines and long notes possess a rich charm and uplifting spirit; so to does ‘Anima I’, an elegiac and calm piece that, says BELLI, was composed “following a moment of intense recollection and mediation.” Built on a 12-bar harmonic bass, repeated 3 times, its structure serves as the basis for the other pieces on the album, both in minor and relative major keys.

This includes the energetic ‘Amber Maze’, another single and a piece that reflects the “restlessness” of the caves at Le Grotte del Cantinone. A type of toccata, it sees BELLI “having fun playing with staccato and alternating between hands rhythmically out of phase, to create an edgy and nervous sound.” The result – “a little chaotic and asymmetrical” – is something of a departure for BELLI, but no less intriguing.  

As is Intermundia as a whole, a musical collection of pristine beauty, of the delicate, the haunting, and the divine. Her work here taps our collective wistful yearning for something more, something better; our spirit. “We each have our places where we can better perceive that most precious part of ourselves,” says BELLI. “We just have to find them”.

Olivia Belli:

Sonus Noctis

Italian pianist and composer, Olivia Belli has made her mark in recent years with her delicate, melodic compositions that draw inspiration from the natural world.  Her meticulous observations of her beloved Italian landscapes gave this sensitive artist the creative impulse to capture them in music to share with her listeners.  Her new EP, ‘Sonus Noctis’, continues Belli’s exploration of the theme of the night, begun in her earlier recording ‘Somnio Novo’. With the difference that whereas that recording was dedicated to the glow of the night, here Belli focuses on the sound of the night, in works inspired by the music of Chopin, to whom Belli refers as “...the poet of the night par excellence...”

‘Sonus Noctis’ is comprised of four tracks: the minature ‘Valse’ composed in waltz time; ‘Berceuse’, which has a suspenseful character, inspired by the slow tempo of Chopin’s B minor Sonata; the melancholic ‘Nocturne III’, which references Chopin’s Nocturne, Op. 15 No. 3 and the mysterious and enigmatic ‘Nocturne IV’, influenced by Chopin’s Nocturne  Op. 27 No. 1.