Solo Piano III completes the Solo Piano trilogy. Like any final act, there are complications and consequences, followed by an urgent race to the finish line. Like its predecessors, it's a mostly happy ending in C major, but there is more dissonance, tension and ambiguity along the way. Solo Piano (2004) appeared in a more innocent time, when Chilly Gonzales was a pioneer in evoking the dying genres of classical and jazz and dragged them kicking and screaming into the 21st century. This album of accidental virtuosity surprised everyone, including the self-described musical genius himself. Solo Piano II (2012) was a pop mini-masterpiece for a wired world, a

transition to a new reality. By then a legendary entertainer and A-list collaborator (Drake, Daft Punk, Feist) Chilly Gonzales delivered a catchy, polished collection; he was aiming to please and ready for prime time. The sequel definitively satisfied an ever-increasing audience hungry for Gonzo's imperfectly perfect miniatures.

Solo Piano III comes at a more problematic inflection point. The collaborations continue (Room 29 with Jarvis Cocker, Ibeyi, Toddla T ... ) but Chilly Gonzales doesn't need to please anyone anymore. Now, he will leave in the wrong notes. Mysterious chords and surprising structures become addictive, until they sound inevitable. The Gonzervatory music school graduated its first class and the teacher has become a perpetual student again, unafraid to let the music speak for itself. The musical purity of Solo Piano III is not an antidote for our times, it is a reflection of all the beauty and ugliness around us.