Federico Albanese – Memories at Landhaus Fredenwalde

Italian composer and pianist Federico Albanese has released a new EP of solo piano works entitled Fredenwalde – Teil I via Mercury KX. The EP follows hot on the heels of his exquisite collaborative EP with Tara Nome Doyle The Moments We Keep.

Federico explains the background to this new EP and the track “Meridian”: “The Landhaus Fredenwalde is a house, located north – east of Berlin, in the Uckermark region of Brandenburg. It is said that the house was originally planned as a train station on the Wilmersdorf – Gerswalde – Haßleben line, but this plan was never implemented. Culture and history make this place a unique universe where everything seems to have skipped the laws of time. In April 2021, I spent a short period over there with my family. I was blown away by the power that resonated through those brick walls and the landscape. Almost like touching what was left of a world that we strive to remember.

Initially I had no intention of recording anything while I was there, and those days were meant to be a short escape from the hectic environment of the city. But this house, and the land that surrounds it, held such incredible energy that I was driven and inspired by it and felt I needed to describe it somehow. In one of the rooms there is an old Steinway grand piano from 1938 that has a quite unique sound. The type of sound that is framed in time, that is grounded into an atmosphere, it has almost the feeling of being eternal, and it was the perfect tool to translate the essence of this wonderful place.

One morning I sat at the piano and surrendered to the flow of that magical place and sound. Music formed without thinking, without any sort of pre–construction. I wanted to craft a memory of that feeling of being there in that moment. Most of the time, so much of what we do is quickly forgotten but sometimes you want to hold something forever, almost like you want to take care of it, as you can come back and relive it. And this what music is to me – at its essence – it’s what gives us memories.

In Italian ‘Meridiana’ is an instrument used to measure time, like a solar clock. More specifically, it measures the passing of the sun through midday. This song describes that moment, when the day is fully opening and manifesting itself to us. It’s the best time to let ideas flow, to explore the landscape and let ourselves be carried by its energy. I wanted to describe that transition.”