The Imagined is a new album of piano music by Alice Ping Yee Ho played by Christina Petrowska Quilico. There are four works. The first is Pictures from an Imagined Exhibitiion which riffs off pictures by Hong Kong ink master Wesley Tongson and Christina Petrowska Quilico herself. There are four movements. “Free Strokes” is kind of minimalist with arpeggios and repeated figures. It sounds weird to say it but it sounds “watery”. “Distant Drums” is similar in some ways but faster and with some much darker passages. “Mystical Mountains” by contrast is slower and darker with a kind of doom-laden quality. Finally “Dancing Colours” is bright and playful with, I think, some modal elements. It’s all quite virtuosic with occasional distinctly “non-western” touches.

Manic Ride Through Lolliipop Hell has its roots in an opera-in-progress The Labyrinth of Tears. It’s three movements are heavily contrasted but generally a bit manic with some really disconcerting patches; stop/start, multiple rhythms and bassy, crashing chords makes me very curious about the opera.

The Chinese Nightingale might just be my favourite piece on the record. There’s an electronic track here as well as, I think, some extended technique. This all allows for more variation of texture; more layers, including sparse piano against a shimmering background and heavier use of obviously Chinese themes in the writing. I like it a lot.

Hong Kong Nostalgia is another programmatic work in three parts. Overall, it evokes memories of Hong Kong in the 1970s. “Connaught Building” is a jazzy, staccato, high energy piece touching on the modernity of what was HK’s tallest building. “Temple of Ten Thousand Buddhas” is meditative and quite sparsely scored with nods to traditional guzheng and pipa sounds. “Night Markets” is very busy riffing off the chaotic energy of an Asian night market. Together the three movements rather effectively recall the odd blend of modernity and tradition, east and west that was the old Hong Kong.

It’s a digital only album available in excellent 96kHz/24bit sound, in CD quality digital and in MP3. There’s no digital booklet but as is the custom with this label it has it’s own page on the Navona website.

Catalogue information: Navona Records NV6857