Leonardo Barilaro might be working in silence towards achieving a quite momentous achievement. This pianist, composer, and astronaut plans to perform the first piano concert on Mars, and listening to the defiant, desolate melancholy that resides in his arpeggios and resilient melodies, one would be hard pressed to find music more fitting for the occasion.
Italian, Leonardo Barilaro is a pianist, composer, and an author whose book ‘Music from Space’ is about his musical journey in space, because Barilaro is also an aerospace engineer who has found a new home among the celestial in the International Space Station. Recorded and probably conceived on his Zanta ZB-200 grand piano, ‘Chrysalis’ is Barilaro’s latest composition. Inspired in part by Astrobeat, the new space mission that he’s leading onboard the International Space Station, a chrysalis is the vessel in which metamorphosis takes place, a cocoon of sorts, and the space pianist has used this concept to conceive a quite surreal scene.
“Imagine a dimly lit stage adorned with a mysterious cocoon, barely recognizable in the soft glow… says Barilaro about his latest piece. Indeed, Barilaro’s sensibilities, both melodic and harmonic, seem to flow with exquisite liquidity from one whimsical, winding, and wondrous passage to the next, putting away conventions about tonal function for something that sounds more organic and alive than predictable or familiar.
The result is an affectionate piece of music that is full of hope for what might be taking shape inside of this cocoon, and also full of the desolate anxiety that can be so easily conjured when imagining the infinite pitch darkness of space, a source of comfort for some, and of dread for others. Regardless of which team you find yourself on, there can be no denying that ‘Chrysalis’ is a stirring piece of music that wordlessly paints images with vivid colors and bold, counter-moving brush strokes.