Vitalii Kyianytsia Trio - Last Day of Spring (2022)

The debut album of the Ukrainian pianist Vitalii Kyianytsia. With seven of his own compositions, the pianist composed the lion's share of the repertoire, drummer Mathias Ruppnig contributed the fast-paced "Stranger Than Fiction" and the number with the mysterious title "SOM & DID" comes from bassist Johannes Fink.

The balance between freedom and structure is kept in equilibrium brilliantly in this trio, and the pieces that Kyianytsia composed for his band during the second lockdown he had a lot of time and consequently sometimes two pieces were composed on one day impress with their harmonic sophistication and their opulent melodies. At the end, the trio plays a virtuoso "Spring Sprint", which leaves you almost breathless.

The only composition by someone else on the album is one of the famous "Gnossiennes" from the pen of the French composer Erik Satie. "Satie is one of my favorite composers," Kyianytsia confessed. "This piece is very well known, but that wasn't the only reason I wanted to work with it. I chose a 7/8 bar, but the original piece has a rather unconventional structure. I wanted to push the rhythmic structure to its limits, and there is even an improvised part in the middle."