Closer

Album review

In the eight years since her debut, The Fall Dance, London-via-Rome composer-musician Maria Chiara Argirò has transformed from a jazz pianist working with electronic accents to a multi-instrumentalist, producer and electronic-focused creator with seemingly unlimited range—and jazz chops to back it all up. That versatility dots every measure on Argirò’s fourth album, Closer.

A stylistic convergence that absorbs and transmogrifies sounds from the vibrant UK jazz scene, European experimental electronic music and classic house, grime and UK garage tracks, Closer hooks you in the first eight bars. "I’ve been holding onto something," she confesses in the breathy, Italian-accented opening line of "Light," virtually commanding you to stay tuned for further info. The songs that follow, each with a single-word title, convey the essence of her offering.

The album arrives two years after Forest City—her first for LA label Innovative Leisure—earned major Stateside attention. Closer is even better, a consistently surprising set of tracks that align with the ideas and approaches of contemporary electronic producers such as Jon Hopkins, Kelly Lee Owens, Four Tet and James Blake.

Driven by a two-step shuffle and a stabbing bass-tone, on "Grow" Argirò layers and filters her voice up and down the frequency range. The musician, who earned early attention for her work with These New Puritans, builds beguiling rhythms by chopping her words on the messed-up downtempo k-hole that is "Koala." By the time Argirò concludes with "Floating," her voice is dense with Vocoder-textured static that, combined with a heavy, velveteen synth melody, is a world away from that secret something she’s been carrying, conveying the sensation of "floating in the Sea of Japan."  © Randall Roberts/Qobuz