THE WIRE
(UK)
JANUARY 1999

Piano Magic
Bliss Out Vol 13
DARLA DRL074CD

Bill Cohen

For some years now, Piano Magic have secretly been amassing a distinctive canon of melancholy and nostalgic dream forms, which are moving ever closer to Current 93 (in tone-wash mode). Their concerns are also similar : the utopia of childhood and the invocation of long gone places. Bliss Out Vol 13 is all tide washes and lost-at-sea siren calls. It's imagery recalls the films of Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky, which are likewise initially austere and seemingly impenetrable until you've hung with them long enough to crack his language.