Background Magazine (NL)
Massimo Sergi is an Italian musician and composer. Born in Taranto in 1962, lover of every musical genre since adolescence. He soon feels the need to start electronic organ studies, a very important tool in vogue at the end of the seventies. In his journey he quickly passes to the synthesizer, and then approaches the piano, concentrating his preferences. Along the way he falls in love with jazz music, fusion, progressive rock and classical music. Often he loves to join his organ with the sounds of the digital piano and synthesizers. Strangely enough it took him a while to release something on his own. Because Walkaround is his first solo album and was released December 2017 and reached our office just recently. Pianist Massimo Sergi has released the album Walkaround for Terre Sommerse di Roma, in the series "Terre Sonore". The disc contains a 12-page booklet with photographs of Sergi. His debut moves in a very wide range of sound, between subtle jazz veins and obvious classic references, passing through some elegant pop solutions and occasional experimentations that are clearly against the trend. The work evokes sweet and rarefied melancholy, tragic atmospheres but always devoted to intimate reflection, magnetic ancestry with an alienating vocation. In such a frame the references, among others, to Keith Jarrett, to the refinements of André Gagnon, to the elegance of David Benoit and to the soundtracks by Joe Hisaishi appear evident. The disc is divided into two parts or "segment", as the author suggests in the tracklist. The first Segment (a): A Piano Walk, consists of twelve pieces performed by the solo pianist (with the help of short synthesizers in a couple of tracks). This first part shows most of all his love for classical music and jazz. Influences from his favourite classical composers such as Rachmaninov, Čaikovskij, J.S. Bach and Mozart are notable. In the second part Segment (b): Around A Piano, consisting of two pieces, you will hear his a distinctly ambient / electronic influences. Massimo Sergi makes here use of the collaboration of two artists. Stefano Pontani, a well-known guitarist in the prog and jazz scene and working with acts such as Ezra Winston, Anagramma, Vu-Meters and Matilda Mothers Project as well as Gianluca Livi, member of Anno Mundi, a Roman hard rock group, here totally detached from his role as a drummer, engaged as a mere chiseller of sounds and settings, however, sound engineer in all the tracks that make up Walkaround. This work also highlights the deepest and darkest moments of human existence, such as the loss of love and the fading of feelings as you can perceive from the songs Lost Love, Strangers Again, or celebrate its importance as in (Almost) All About Us and No Distance. The song Walkaround is a walk in its own right, made on an early autumn morning, a prelude to a cyclical rebirth! In the second part of the album there are songs in which the melodic notes of the piano blend with digital effects and with the electric guitar, creating an unrepeatable melody: Lost Love is the best example. But without giving further advances we invite you to listen to this unrepeatable project that will catapult you into a surreal world made of unique sounds and emotions! Walkaround is an album very far from the ordinary but so incredibly close to the listener's conscience, strong of an intrinsic communication capacity that rarely seems to be found in today's and now too standardized record releases. This CD is most of all written on a piano, going through the simplest and most profound paths of human existence, dwelling in front of small things or apparently insignificant people, but which, in turn, continue the journey of their lives. An album, this by Massimo Sergi overall with a certain grace and balance
