Anne Lovett’s stunning new release for 1631 Recordings The Eleventh Hour is a departure from her beautiful previous solo piano album Beyond (and below). Without losing any of the startling beauty of the preceding album, in The Eleventh Hour, Anne Lovett reveals a new sonic world. Joined by the London Contemporary Orchestra, the UK’s most innovative and respected ensemble routinely heard alongside such luminaries as Radiohead, Jonny Greenwood or Mica Levi, and later in duo with acclaimed cellist and composer Oliver Coates, Anne Lovett also introduces subtle electronics carefully interwoven with layered melodic piano lines.
The main narrative of the album was conceived during a period when intense shifts were taking place in society and led the composer into profound rethinking around the piano. The result is a deeply felt work that mourns the loss of a spiritual home as well as reflecting a dazed comprehension of the world having permanently tilted on its axis.
Best described by the Japanese concept of Kintsugi or “broken beauty”, The Eleventh Hour is a heartbreakingly beautiful contribution to the modern classical genre. The thirteen tacks are all meticulously crafted and ring out with a dark luminosity, like an elegy to our troubled times.
It will appeal to fans of Dustin O’Halloran, Nils Frahm, Max Richter, Philip Glass, Jóhann Jóhannson who will find many reasons to love this album .
'While firmly rooted in the here and now, Lovett’s quietly plaintive tonal music echoes the European tradition, from Bach to Satie and beyond, and feels like a soulful elegy for a Britain that has lost its bearings.'
The Observer (Stephen Pritchard), 11 November 2018
Born in Normandy in France, Anne Lovett was brought up into a musical family, her father being a luthier and her mother a dancer. She picked up piano at three years old and developed an interest in composition early on. Later, she studied at the Conservatoire Supérieur de Paris as well as the Royal Academy of Music and later at King’s College, London. Equally at ease writing and performing her own music as well as performing those of others, Anne has performed in some of London’s greatest venues, from Cadogan Hall to Hackney Empire and has made live appearances on many international leading radios and TV network such as BBC One (The One Show), BBC Radio 4 (the Today Programme), BBC Radio 3 (In Tune), BBC Radio 6 (Cerys Matthews), ZDF, France Musique, ABC Classic FM in Australia to name a few. Anne is also an avid supporter of Erik Satie’s music often considered to be the world’s first minimalist composer (although Anne would argue this to be misjudged!).