The compositions of Dustin O’Halloran’s second album Piano Solos Vol. 2 are in overlapping Classical and Romantic styles of Western classical music (thanks wikipedia.org) These twelve beautiful songs gentle cadences are more Philip Glass (“Opus 28”) than Tchaikovsky, seamlessly tied together like a fifty-minute block of K-MOZART 105.1. O’Halloran, a part-time foley artist and half of the L.A. band Devics, consonantly brings it like Achille-Claude “Don’t call it impressionist music” Debussy (“Opus 22”) and throws it down with Ludwig van “Morrissey was deaf” Beethoven toddling towardliness - with the nimble notes doing somersaults, first hesitantly then playfully (oh “Opus 21”). Piano Solos Vol. 2 is O’Halloran’s original work. The words “NME’s Godlike Genius Award” come to mind.
There is not now nor will there ever be any verbose Schumann-fabulous (“Op. 56, Etuden in kanonischer Form für Orgel oder Pedalklavier”) or Fall Out Boy-style song titles on O’Halloran’s watch ("Champagne for My Real Friends, Real Pain for My Sham Friends") just an elegantly minimalist “Opus 38” or “Opus 37” will do. But that’s the kind of poetic discretion one expects when your two dads are 80’s cult heroes Morrissey and Christopher Walken. It’s true - the modified pompadour, those Deer Hunter eyes - and part of the reason Sparkling Blanc de Blanc Sofia Coppola asked O’Halloran to score two tracks (“Opus 17” and “Opus 36”) for her 80’s New Romantic (Adam & The Ants, Bow Wow Wow) and Goth (the Cure, Siouxsie & the Banshees) heavy “Marie Antoinette”. One of the pieces was performed on a 1700’s Pleyel piano forte; a Chopin change from the Well-Tempered Clavier of O’Halloran’s usual 1930’s Sabel upright. Piano Solos Vol. 2’s “Opus 23” - a song as winsome and confectionary as any frock or cake on the big screen, takes a place in the films soundtrack too.
At times (“Opus 20”, “Opus 26” and “Opus 34”) O’Halloran’s album feels like the wintriest of Vivaldi’s: Four Seasons (“Concerto in F minor, Op. 8 No. 4, RV 297, "L'Inverno") – slowly veering off the road into an Ordinary People-style chilly Lake Forest depression brought on by Johann Pachelbel's “Canon in D”. Conrad Jarrett (Adam Brody on the O.C. – all tan cords and manorexia) would be proud. Even Beth Jarrett (Kelly Rowan) would be proud for Piano Solos Vol. 2 is a sublime (the highest praise in the genre, I’ve learned…) recording. |