Melanie De Biasio - Il Viaggio (2LP)

Drop the needle and the room seems to hold its breath. Il Viaggio is Melanie De Biasio leaning even further into space, patience, and that smoky contralto that feels half sung, half exhaled. Released in October 2023 on Play It Again Sam, it arrives after the stark beauty of Lilies and the nocturnal pull of No Deal, but it glows with its own low light. The title suits it. This is a journey, not in the flashy sense, but in the way a late train ride or a solitary walk can become a small pilgrimage if you pay attention.

De Biasio has always favored less over more. Here she strips back again, letting voice and flute carry most of the weight while soft keys, brushed drums, and murmuring electronics move like tidewater underneath. The pacing is unhurried. Songs bloom slowly, often from a single tone or whisper, and she trusts you to lean in. It is a record about presence. You notice the grain of her breath, the soft air around the flute, the gentle thud of a piano pedal. Nothing clutters. Nothing shouts. Yet it never feels thin. The quiet holds.

There is a tug toward her Italian roots, suggested in the title and in the way she slips bits of Italian phrasing into the lull of English. It works as color and as memory. De Biasio has talked for years about seeking that narrow line where jazz, chamber minimalism, and songwriter intimacy meet. Il Viaggio finds it with more confidence. The pieces often sit on drones or sustained chords, but small details keep them alive. A cymbal bloom here, a bass figure that appears like a shadow, a flute phrase that edges from lullaby to lament. When the band joins in, it never breaks the spell. It breathes with her.

It is tempting to call this a late-night record, and sure, it will make your living room lamp glow a little warmer. But it also works in the quiet hours of the morning, when the city is soft and you can hear your own floorboards. There is restraint, yes, though not as a pose. De Biasio is chasing concentration. The melodic lines circle and return like thoughts you cannot quite put down. When she lifts into a higher register or lets the flute rasp just a little, the emotional charge lands without a raised voice.

If you have followed her since No Deal surprised a lot of people a decade ago, you will hear threads. The admiration for Nina and Billie is still there, not as imitation but as an understanding of phrasing and silence. The European cool of her arrangements still traces a path between jazz clubs and art spaces. What feels new is the sense of collage. The album knits together voice, room tone, and tiny environmental sounds until you are never quite sure where the song ends and the world begins. It is a subtle trick, and it gives Il Viaggio its atmosphere.

On Il Viaggio vinyl, those micro dynamics are the point. The black wax invites you to turn the volume a notch higher than usual and meet the record halfway. Bass is soft but firm, the midrange is clear enough to catch every breath, and the high end never turns brittle. If you are crate-digging for Melanie De Biasio vinyl, this is the one you pull when the house has calmed and you want intimacy rather than spectacle. Among Melanie De Biasio albums on vinyl, No Deal and Lilies get a lot of love, but this one feels like a personal note slid under the door.

The songs will likely become fan favorites for the way they refuse easy hooks yet stick around anyway. After a few plays you start humming fragments, a line of melody, a sighing flute response, a piano figure that feels like a heartbeat. It is not background music, though it can float there. Give it a side to itself, no distractions, and it opens.

If you are looking to buy Melanie De Biasio records online, you will find Il Viaggio in steady stock now, often with a tasteful, heavyweight pressing that does the softness justice. Ask at your local shop too. A good Melbourne record store will know exactly why this belongs next to your late-night Miles and your ECM favorites, and stores that ship vinyl records Australia wide tend to recommend it to listeners who like records that breathe.

Il Viaggio vinyl is a keeper because it rewards care. Put it on when you want to be reminded that quiet can be bold, and that a voice, a flute, and a handful of carefully chosen sounds can still feel like a whole world.