There is something quietly definitive about “Origin”, the latest release from improvisational pianist Mario Mattia. As the title suggests, the piece gestures towards a point of departure, although the music itself resists any fixed sense of starting or ending. This work is less like a beginning and more like a return to first principles.

“Origin” consists of a single, uninterrupted improvisation lasting just over twenty-four minutes, making it the longest work Mattia has released to date. Recorded in his rural woodland studio with close microphone placement and a meticulously voiced piano, the performance captures every detail of the instrument’s character – from warm, resonant consonance to the more fragile edges of upper-partial dissonance.