Belgian pianist and keyboard player Thijs Troch is known for the local Jukwaa trio and Kabas quartet, the Troika collective and fellow Belgian pianist Seppe Gebruers. Troch wanted to make textural, electronic meditations, where «time becomes a blur and there is no need for pushing things to happen». This idea was born out of Troch’s fascination or need for longer (or shorter) periods of concentration, as in real life one loses focus because of life happening. He thought kind of music would allow the listener to zoom in or zoom out of the music at any time, and that it can be enjoyed in the background as well as in a concentrated listening session.

Troch began recording himself playing with synths, harmonium and guitar at his home between September and November 2021. A month later he did a piano overdub session at Studio Ledeberg in Ghent where he reacted spontaneously to the electronic pieces. The cover artwork was done by Maxime Melis, a textural painting of a zoomed-in Vanitas Stilleven, corresponding beautifully with the music and its symbolic transient spirit. Stilleven (still life) is released in a limited edition of 200 vinyl and with a download option.

The solo album Stilleven offers eight cryptic yet layered and detailed textures that have mysterious threads of subtle urban stories, ambient and exotic meditative elements, or fleeting enigmatic drones, but all rarely surrender to a familiar, defined narrative or form. You can easily lose your sense of time within these suggestive textures, gently flow with their secretive logic and leisured development and let their caressing, meditative sounds embrace you and wash away the burdens of daily life.

Eyal Hareuveni 

Thijs Troch (synth, (un)prep. p, harmonium, g)