Bleep

Having spent a fair few years working for Ninja Tune, James Heather steps into the spotlight with this LP of contemporary classical piano pieces. Out via the long-dormant Ninja Tune imprint Ahead Of Our Time (Coldcut, Lisa Stansfield), Stories From Far Away On Piano delivers on the ethereal dreaminess of its title. Fans of Ryuichi Sakamoto, Olafur Arnalds etc will find plenty to like on these nine cuts of plinky-plonky piano niceness. Heather displays good expressive range in his playing, veering from discordant arpeggios on ‘Empire Sounds’ to rich stirring chords for cuts like ‘Biomes’. Features lovely, detailed original artwork.