Maxence Cyrin

Maxence Cyrin is now one of the most widely streamed pianists in the world, thanks to his acclaimed cover of the Pixies track “Where Is My Mind?”, a certified triple diamond track that has been played over 150 million times. He returns to the studio with a new album of original compositions, Springsong, cementing his position as a trailblazer in neoclassical new-age music. These ten new tracks, full of hope, explore some of his favourite themes, relating to travel, the countryside and contemplation. Maxence Cyrin has lived in Montmartre for 30 years, but often feels the need to get away from Paris and experience the sun and the sea, to achieve that sense of fulfilment necessary for his work as a composer. In this sense, this new album brings to a close the trilogy that began with Aurora (2020) and Melancholy Island (2022), based on the travels of this globetrotting pianist. Maxence’s trips and residencies, which in recent times have taken him to Brittany, Sicily and Lisbon, have been the inspiration for this album, which he describes as fundamentally “characterised by hope, despite the tough times we’re living through”. The two first tracks on the album, “Springsong” and “Candle”, are testament to this, with the piano’s nimble melodies amplified by a string trio, a world away from the melancholy moods of Maxence’s previous albums. This new album brings together ten original compositions that once again attest to the artist’s penchant for short forms, similar to the pop song, reminiscent of the brevity of Erik Satie. “My origins are only partly in classical music,” he explains, recalling his career as a partly self-taught musician within pop and electronic music in the 1990s. Often devoid of any one concept that might prove too stifling, Maxence Cyrin’s albums should be understood as a kind of intimate journal, or a series of short stories which document his day-to-day emotions, as well as the places and landscapes he has gone through. “With your own music, ultimately you are only talking about yourself, even if you don’t want to convey all your feelings in quite as raw a fashion as you feel them personally,” the artist reveals. “Just like writing, the piano, for me, is a vehicle, a conduit that I use to help me try to channel the sometimes intense emotions that course through me – just in a more serene, softer form. This is why most of the pieces have a single-word title, such as “Comet”, “Horizon” or “Silence”, which serve as trigger intended to evoke images in the listener’s mind.’