Piers Faccini
Leave No Trace

PIERS FACCINI: A NEW HOPE IN THE BLUES SCENE

Piers Faccini is an emerging artist in the international music scene. A French singer-songwriter (with an English mother and an Italian father), he is a guitarist hailing from the successful stable of Jp Plunier (already a producer for Ben Harper and Jack Johnson).

This 2004 work is his first solo album. In fact, a few years earlier, Piers played in a group called 'Charley Marlowe', with which he had already recorded an album "This Could Be You", besides establishing themselves as an excellent blues band, thanks to numerous live performances in various London clubs.

The artist introduces us to a twilight, melancholic, soft and delicate blues, with mysterious and autumnal atmospheres. Little musical brightness between the tracks contained in this album; it all seems illuminated by the weak and flickering light of a candle. The songs musically have nothing innovative or revolutionary; they are in the full tradition of blues singer-songwriting, and this is indeed one of the strengths of the record. If I had seen it dated thirty years ago, I wouldn't have been shocked at all. It is a classic style album, offering us eleven tracks of excellent music. That music made with plucked guitar strings, softly blown harmonicas, percussion, bass, and many other traditional instruments, that music that is always the same but never tires: the blues.

So in this work, we find small yet great pieces that make it unforgettable, like the mysterious notes rhythmically followed by a splendid bass melody in "All The Love In The World", the sweet guitar and vocal atmospheres of the ethereal ballad "Catch A Flame" or the ancient notes of the ‘blues-love-song’ "Picture Of You", beautiful. Also noteworthy is the song that opens the CD "Where Angels Fly", where Ben Harper's musical influence is stronger and clearer than ever. The track I prefer on the album, however, is the sad and melancholic "Ugly Places", the notes follow each other slowly, Faccini's resigned and sweet voice caresses an autumnal, disillusioned, and desolate atmosphere: the result is splendid.

A very pleasant album, splendid blues musicality, as rarely heard today. The only flaw that can be found is a certain flatness in some central tracks, but this is not enough to lower the excellent quality of the record. Highly recommended. Piers Faccini proves to be, from the very first work, an artist of great talent and a classy guitarist. It's evident that we are facing a musician of pedigree, and... if this is only the debut... it really makes me hopeful for the future...