LUBOMYR MELNYK

Fallen Trees 7/10

Pianist’s latest variations on a familiar theme

At the age of 70, the great composer Lubomyr Melnyk is more prolific than ever – he’s released at least 10 albums over the past five years – and to expect anything other than an immersive, undulating rhapsody from the world’s fastest pianist (19.5 notes per hand each second!) seems a little far-fetched at this stage. Fallen

Trees, conceivably a companion piece to 1985’s The Voice Of Trees, offers another ravishing cascade of notes that plunges the listener into a profoundly hallucinatory realm, at once chaotic and calming. Aided by voice and cello on the five-part title track, Melnyk conjures a world that is both sentimental and abstract – a safe space in which to lose yourself.