Mr Vertigo is a bold, diverse exploration of solo piano counterpoint by Bruno Heinen, and his sixth album for the progressive Babel Label. Heinen has established pedigree in both classical and jazz worlds, in his various collaborations with jazz players in London and Italy, and his recent role in the piano chair in Bernstein's Wonderful Town with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle at the Barbican. On Mr Vertigo Heinen approaches the instrument from a new standpoint, without a prescribed attitude to improvisation or preoccupation with genre distinctions in his compositions or selections. Instead he focuses in the contrapuntal identity of each piece - using each to explore a particular aspect of the rich relationships between parts in solo performance. The result is a record that resists traditional categorisation. "Erudition, eclectic studies and a jazz sensibility make Heinen the kind of newcomer who repositions the goalposts" - The Guardian Part of Mr Vertigo's project is technical and investigative, a kind of research: Mirage explores space and atonality using subtle overdubs and post-production techniques; Virgo is a 'duet' with an original Stockhausen music box; Forgotten Images weaves a rare Debussy theme into an original Heinen composition; Daydreamer draws on Wayne Shorter's 'Night Dreamer' to investigate the relationship between two time signatures. Each piece of music also has a very human point of origin, a story being expressed by each contrapuntal approach. The title track, based a Paul Auster novel, describes the traumatic experience of a boy learning to fly. 'Hommage à Kurtág', played with ly the two index fingers, is based the instinctive moves of children arriving at a piano to play for the first time. In Kochi Heinen draws a Vagadhibhusani South Indian Carnatic scale he learned while travelling through India. The pianist's ability with counterpoint has always been evident: in his approach to solo building, his Tierkries Sextet writing, and in his current studies with renowned pianist Fred Hersch. Mr Vertigo shows him engaging with the full range of its possibilities.
