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12/31/2025
“Clair-obscur”
David Mulero: Amour et Psyché – Brume – Clair-obscur – Versailles – Quelques notes de pluie – La chambre bleue – Fugit irrepara bile tempus – Concerto No. 5 – Valse nocturne
David Mulero (piano)
Recording: Shauna Records, Nice, France (November 5, 2025) – 30’20
Shauna Records (no catalogue number) (Download only available via Spotify or Bandcamp)
 
Contemporary composer David Mulero’s latest album, “Clair‑obscur”, explores the delicate interplay of musical tones as though they were visual shades of dark and light. It’s not surprising that the French composer of these vignettes for keyboard references a term from the visual arts. In addition to being a fine pianist, he is also a visual practitioner of the photographic arts. Not only do these musical selections explore contrasts in visual art, but they also expand our understanding of shades of meaning, perhaps a philosophy that shifts from pessimism to optimism, or yang to yin. Dig deeper and you may find layers of meaning that reveal the ever-shifting landscape of the soul.
The term, chiaroscuro, is well known to visual artists, describing the way shadows emerge and recede in a painting. Close your eyes and listen to Amour et Psyché, the first track in this album. You will hear the whispers of the soul, referencing an ancient Greek myth of love and spirit, drifting in and out of pools of affection and estrangement and back again.
Listening to the nine tracks of this album, I was taken back in memory to some of the memorable French art films of the late fifties and sixties, the works of Truffaut, the mesmerizing performances of actors such as Delon and Moreau. Like the French “New Wave” composers, Mulero’s piano works in this album combine classical with jazz elements, seasoned with a pinch of unique sounds of our own time, always keeping a light touch. They are melodic, but not predictably so.
The repetitive tempo is also a characteristic of this composer. Whether intentionally or not, his expressive use of repeated triplets and sixteenth notes is reminiscent of usage by Bach and Mozart. While composers in past generations may have regarded repeated sixteenth notes as primarily accompaniment or underpinning (think “Alberti bass”), Mulero integrates the melodic content of his songs within a nest of repeated notes, creating a scaffold for musical creativity that is or at once contemporary, familiar, and original. At the same time, Mulero speaks to a world fluent in the techniques of Philip Glass and humbled by awareness of Asian, African and other non‑Western music theories (the Indonesian gamelan tradition, for example).
I found this album a charming and imaginative excursion into one man’s musical universe. There is a freedom, even wantonness about the expression of musical ideas, yet Mulero’s vignettes are more sophisticated than most “New Age” creations. There is an accessibility about them, but also a respect for structure and form.
The best way to think about Mulero’s approach is to regard his respect of form as left‑brained and his release into emotional freedom as right‑brained. For some artists, the two never mix, but here, in “Clair‑obscur” it does, and quite nicely. I think our familiarity with the musical scores of “New Wave” movies may have opened our minds to this fresh approach to composition.
I know I like it and hope to listen to more in the future.
Linda Holt
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