The Houseboat and the Moon (Reworked) Federico Albanese

• 1Disclosed (Rework by John Lemke)04:49
• 2Carousel #3 (Rework by Cassegrain)06:42
• 3Queen and Wonder (Rework by Franz Kirmann)07:09
• 4Beyond the Milk Wood (Rework by Saffronkeira)07:31
• Total Runtime26:11

Info for The Houseboat and the Moon (Reworked)

Federico Albanese is a composer born in Milan, Italy in 1982, and currently based in Berlin. His musical versatility is a natural gift that pushes him to explore music in all its facets. Albanese's compositions are airy and cinematic, blending classical music, electronics and psychedelia. Federico started studying piano and clarinet as a child before becoming fascinated by rock music. As a teenager he studied bass and became a self-taught guitarist and soon became one of the leading figures of Milan's underground scene, performing in several bands. Influenced by black music, folk, electronic, modern and contemporary classical music his skills as a composer soon emerged.

In February 2014, Federico Albanese released his debut album entitled "THE HOUSEBOAT AND THE MOON" on Denovali Records. He recorded all of the piano parts with a 1969 German tape recorder, the Uher Royal Deluxe, which allowed him to catch all of the tiny hidden shades, the imperfections, the noises of the piano and its surrounding space. Federico melted this rarefied sound with electronics, live recordings, strings, and homemade instruments. The result was a combination of contrasts and colors with a variety of atmospheres that wonderfully represented Federico's musical universe.

The idea to release an EP with reworks of songs from "The Houseboat and the Moon" took shape in Federico's mind already while he was recording the album. He was fascinated by the idea of re-exploring the pieces, to put them in a different context, to give them to artists he loves and to see what would emerge from this. The result is a striking compilation of four reworks by Albanese's fellow labelmates JOHN LEMKE, FRANZ KIRMANN of PIANO INTERRUPTED, SAFFRONKEIRA as well as by subliminal techno masterminds CASSEGRAIN, exploring a wide range of the spectrum of electronic music.

"Through Denovali I had the chance to discover lots of very good artists and producers, with whom I thought it would have been great to collaborate.", Federico states and continues "I really appreciate JOHN LEMKE's work and I knew right away he would have been a good choice. John gave to my piece "Disclosed" a new light, keeping the flow of the original track and opening doors for other worlds. I had the chance to play with PIANO INTERRUPTED a few times and I always loved how FRANZ KIRMANN of Piano Interrupted "interrupts" the piano sound, creating amazing layouts. He put his touch on the song "Queen and Wonder", exploring its depth, bringing out a completely new vibe. CASSEGRAIN is a fantastic project I discovered in Berlin a while ago. They reworked the piece "Carousel 3#", giving new space to it, running the piano sound through pedals and fx and creating a slow techno rarefied atmosphere, which outs the piece into a completely new context." Finally, Federico states "I've really enjoyed SAFFRONKEIRA's music, especially his last work with MARIO MASSA, a lot and I immediately thought it would have been great to see what he could do with my piano sound. He reworked the opening track "Beyond the milk wood", digging into the shades of the sounds and creating a new, darker structure. It's been an honor to collaborate with all these great artists."

Federico Albanese, piano, electronics

Federico Albanese
is a composer born in Milan,Italy in 1982. His musical versatility is a natural gift that pushes him to explore music in all its facets. Albanese’s compositions are airy and cinematic, blending classical music, pop and psychedelia. He started studying piano and clarinet as a child before becoming fascinated by rock music performing in several bands. Influenced by black music, folk, electronic, modern and contemporary classical music his skills as a composer soon emerged, He worked for 5 years as prop man in several film sets. This experience made him understand the power of the connection between music and images and helped him to develop his personal musical path. In 2007 he met singer and songwriter Jessica Einaudi and together they founded the avant-garde duo “La Blanche Alchimie”. Composing songs with Jessica he rediscovered his love for the piano, which from that moment on, became his main instrument. They released 2 albums and gained national and international critical attention, performing around Europe, Russia and USA. Their sound has been described as melancholic and haunting, intermingling mellow acoustics and rock-infused dreamscapes.The first omonymous album was released in Italy in 2009 on Ponderosa/Edel. The second album “Galactic Boredom” was released in Italy in 2011 on Ponderosa/Universal and in Germany in 2012 on Q-rious/Edel. In september 2012 the band has been nominated by “Preis der deutschenShallplattenkritik” in the category of best independent album. In 2010 he scored the soundtrack of the short film “Pick up” by Manyhands - a collective of young italian directors - broadcasted by one the most important italian television channels (SKY). In 2012 he scored the soundtrack of documentary “Fabulae Romane” filmed by Matteo Cherubino, a work that documents the first of a structured set of activities of Zegnart - a project commissioned by Ermenegildo Zegna dedicated to the art of our time - that took place at MaXXI - National Museum of XXI Century Arts in Rome. In 2012 he composed the music of full length film “Shadows in the distance” by spanish director Orlando Bosh which has been premiered at Shanghai Film Festival. Between 2013 and 2014 Federico composed and produced music for several films and projects, including the debut short film by Bahar Ebrahim “Alles im grünen Bereich”, and the documentary “Cinema Perverso” by Oliver Shweem produced by the german TV channel ARTE..

Released in February 2014, his highly acclaimed debut solo album “The Houseboat and the Moon” has been described as “pure gold” , and “ one of the most beautiful modern classical albums of the past years..” . He also produced and arranged J Moon (aka Jessica Eianudi) first solo album “Melt”. In August 2014 he released a “Reworked” version of “The Houseboat and the Moon” featuring remixes of Cassegrain, John Lemke, Franz Kirmann and Saffronkeira.

Albanese’s second full lenght album entitled “The Blue Hour” will see the light of the day on January 15, 2016 and will be released by the historical record label BERLIN CLASSICS in their new series of contemporary classical music called “Neue Maister”.

This album contains no booklet.