Composer musician Joe Chindamo has taken seven classic Giacomo Puccini arias and reimagined them with this evocative recording.

With just a hint of the original melodies Puccini created for the his operatic masterpieces Chindamo has created a fresh interpretation lead with his subtle piano performance.
To enhance the recordings Joe enlisted violin player Nigel MacLean, guitarist Doug de Vries, bassist Ben Robertson and Rajiv Jayaweera on drums.

To help achieve a desired minimalist effect, Joe multi tracked the violin, a note at a time in order to create a series of chord clusters which were then interspersed and dovetailed throughout. This eerie stillness is reminiscent of the work of late 20th century composers such as Philip Glass and Takamitsu.

All of the arrangements are by Joe Chindamo. The recordings were made with engineer Chris Corr at Melbourne’s Woodstock Studio.

As Joe likes to quip “I love opera … except for the singing, of course.”

Jokes aside, Joe’s main intention in making this recording was to release these exquisite arias from the constraints of Puccini’s harmonic and rhythmic structures and to explore and rework them into his own abstract sound scape.

This is Puccini stripped back to his rawest elements - lust, longing and love.