Becalmed is the debut album from Sydney pianist Sophie Hutchings, recorded between two different settings: one with engineer Tim Whitten, best known for his work with The Necks, and one with Tony Dupe, who records on the preservation label as Saddleback. Becalmed isn't an entirely solo affair, and you'll hear Hutchings' family and friends helping her out with violin, cello and percussion - all elements that greatly help bring these recordings to life. Beautifully recorded, elegiac and romantic compositions such as 'Sunlight Zone' and the stunning 'After Most' are given an extra dimension by the lyrical flow of strings and the clever use of spatial dynamics in the mix. At times you'll find yourself thinking of artists like Olafur Arnalds, Peter Broderick and Max Richter as suitable ports of comparison for Hutchings' music, and with the likes of 'It Remains' she recalls Michael Nyman's soundtrack to The Piano. You hear a slightly different side to this artist's output when she performs solo, however; aside from a few overdubs late into the piece, the focus of 'Seventeen' is Hutchings' impressively florid technique. The rolling keystrokes of this opening track seem to have as much in common with the kind of quick-fire fingerpicking you'd hear on a Takoma guitar record as they do the established piano solo idiom - lovely stuff. (Boomkat)