Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Aristea Mellos is a Greek-Australian composer and pianist whose compositional voice has been described as 'unnerving and awe-inspiring' (Limelight). In this new album, she celebrates the miracle of the piano: its mechanical precision, its poetic resonance and its capacity for song.

'The tactile relationship between my fingers and my mind is an essential element to my craft,' says Mellos. 'By touching the keys of the piano, my thoughts are unlocked - they act like portals to a place that lies in wait, half sounded, brimming with possibility.'

At the heart of the album is a cycle of twelve preludes, each inspired by fragments of poetry, found texts or iconic phrases. Like Chopin and Debussy before her, Mellos uses the small scale of the prelude form to create whole worlds of emotion and beauty. The suite is brought to life in this recording by pianist Stephanie McCallum who, in a performing and recording career over four decades, has become renowned for her refined control of sound, nuanced artistic instincts and fearless virtuosic control.

The album also features the four-hand piano work Immigrant Suite, honouring the life story of Mellos' maternal grandmother, who left war-torn Europe as a young woman and emigrated to New Zealand and then to Australia as a post-war refugee. 'Whilst works of art often commemorate famous or powerful Australians, in composing this work, I wanted to celebrate my grandmother's ordinary, and yet extraordinary working-class life.' For this suite, Stephanie McCallum is joined by fellow Australian keyboard virtuoso Erin Helyard.