In July 2021 Chilean-born, Italian-based pianist & composer Antonio Flinta went into a recording studio near Florence to record his first solo piano album. Spontaneity and freshness of expression were the goals. In two hours he had twenty pieces—improvisations, covers and originals. The initial result of this effort was Secrets of a Kiri Tree (Self Produced, 2022), one of the year's finest solo efforts (review here).

But there was more music that did not make the cut. Whatever the reason for that, it was not a lack of quality, accessibility or beauty. Indeed, music on Peripheral Songs, culled from the same recording session which resulted in Songs Of A Kiri Tree, is as free-flowing, fresh and lovely as the sounds offered up on its predecessor, beginning with "Improvisation #1," the first thing Flinta played that day when he settled in at the piano and laid the tune down in one take, no edits, no do-overs. And, to paraphrase author Kurt Vonnegut, "So it went."

If it was absolutely necessary to begin things with an improvised piece—Flinta says so, and he can be believed, given the quality and cohesion of Peripheral Songs—it was also necessary to play something familiar,