Skempton by Tilbury- Zen music to adore

As bad as it is to know that you've missed some prime music from last year (I expect to learn about more '06 releases in the weeks to come), it's even worse to hear about a great piece of music from a few years ago that you didn't even hear about.

Thanks to Other Music, I was hepped to a wonderful album by pianist John Tilbury (who you might have heard of from his work as part of famed longtime UK improv ensemble AMM). In 2002, he released Music For You: Skempton Pianoworks as tribute to his friend, composer Howard S. (whose background included studies with Cornelius Cardew). After listening to half of the album streamed at Napster, I was in love with it. It has this wonderful Eno-meet-Satie calm about it and serves as perfect background music for writing or working or just to chill out to. It brings to mind all kinds of placid images like a nice quiet summer's day or the ebb-and-flow of a beach (like on the album cover). Over the last few days, I've gotten so attached to it that I'm copying the music not just to my work computer but also my portable MP3 player so I can summon up its beautiful calm whenever I'm in the mood for it.

Listen to excerpts from the Barnes and Noble site.