Finnish-Swedish pianist / composer Iiris Viljanen’s 6th solo set, So Much Of You Was Sleeping, is a collection of 12 compositions and solo piano improvisations that were recorded in one-take, live, on the spot. I’ve listened to this album a lot. 

The pieces occupy a space that’s neither jazz nor classical – though Viljanen’s chops are never in question. The playing is more classic songwriting, standards, show tunes, the early canon of Tom Waits. Tunes that are just tunes. Neither wistful, reflective or melancholic. Not new age. Not meditative. Its careful cascades, and pirouettes, melodic, full of hummable hooks. Light, easy. Not edgy, experimental, electronically processed / distressed. Not deep-listening. Rather playful, pretty, peaceful. Sometimes, momentarily, flights threaten to run into some much-loved `80s TV theme – Taxi, Hill St. Blues. It’s not trying to be avant, or confrontational. 

At the end of each day, one, generally, of fielding / filtering promos, penning sleeve notes, reviews and press releases, I have come to use it like an aural cleanser. A detox. As it spins I’m not cherry-picking highlights, or searching for words to say, instead I’m simply relaxing into it. Letting it unwind me. As it plays, taking my troubles, and all those other, often challenging, sounds away. 

Mood music. BGM. It fills the room with the finality of evening, but also with an optimism for tomorrow. A fresh start. A clear agenda. One for a nightcap of lemon and ginger tea, not whiskey. Reassuring and sweetly scat vocal-ed. For the lonely, the alone, it’s like little like having somebody there. 

Iiris Viljanen’s So Much Of You Was Sleeping can be ordered directly from Sing A Song Fighter.