Miniature

Francesca Romana Di Nicola, harp. Convivium Records, 2023.

It was the French mathematician Blaise Pascal who wrote, “I’m sorry I wrote you such a long letter; I didn’t have time to write a short one.” It’s oft-quoted as a reminder that brevity and finding the nut of a subject, requires a special skill. 

Italian harpist Francesca Romana Di Nicola lives and works in the Basque region of Spain. In 2020, she wrote a set of 27 short, evocative works. I would call her album Miniature a collection of short stories, each capturing a specific emotion, reflection, or memory. Each allows her to display a skill at encapsulating all that’s necessary in something so brief and transitory, we might miss it if not fully present. 

We’re immediately swept up into glorious playing, sometimes veiled and quiet, at other times exuberant and full of freedom. Added to the mix are poetic reflections by Juan Kruz Igerabide Sarasola that are equally alluring and thought-provoking. At the end of the album, you can hear them read the poems in Italian and Basque, music in and of itself. 

Aquamarine

Kirsten Agresta Copely, harp. Self-released, 2023.

Kirsten Agresta Copely’s Grammy-nominated Aquamarine is a delight of ambient new age sonorities and will transport you to another world. Again this month, we’re treated to the theme of water, this time the astonishing turquoise of the ocean off the coast of Western Florida, where white sands extend seemingly forever and a young Agresta Copely wandered barefoot for hours. It was here at age twelve, she dedicated part of her gigging income to support marine life. This album brings us right to that place and that moment. 

She writes, “I am water in the deep blue world, floating alongside the glass octopus, surrounded by aquamarine, coralline, and the mythical Naiads who, when surfacing, are happy in the sea idyll, only to disappear into the mist…”  This is a lovingly created album in memory of the woman who held her hand on that beach so many years ago—Agresta Copely’s mother. Play this album for inspiration, for meditation, for self-care, in memory of a loved one; it’s beautiful.