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Andrea Grant is an Italian composer based in Rome whose work spans film, documentary, television, and concert music. We interviewed him here at Vox Groovy back in 2024, and one thing he said that stuck with us was that his biggest advice for young composers is to find their unique voice.
It’s advice worth remembering when listening to Sidera—his third solo album—because the most interesting thing about this project is how clearly that voice appears in places, and how much you find yourself wanting to hear more of it.
The new release offers twelve tracks, recorded in Budapest with forty-three live musicians, built around piano, strings, and electronics. The title comes from the Latin for “stardust,” and the album’s stated goal is to explore themes like transience, distance, and the ways people come together and fall apart. Grant handles these ideas with care and restraint, and when the album is at its best, the results are genuinely beautiful.
Review
A voice worth hearing
“As If By Touch” is the standout. The violin enters with evenly spaced notes over piano accents, each phrase rhythmically identical until, towards the end of each bar, certain notes begin to lengthen and pull against the established tempo. The use of rubato here brings tension and leaves the listener slightly off balance, unsure of where the piece will go. But it settles as the two instruments find a shared language. The piano solo in the middle of the track is the album’s finest moment. Spacious, open, with a generous reverb that lets every note breathe.
Neither instrument overpowers the other. They complement each other like old friends in conversation, each leaving room for the other to speak. When the full string ensemble enters in the second half, the piece grows without sacrificing any of its warmth, and it closes exactly as it began. Only now, with the full context of the piece behind you, the rubato no longer unsettles. It relieves. This is Grant at his most distinctive. The writing here is unique, and it’s the clearest example on the album of what his music can be when it isn’t leaning on convention.
“76 Reco” is nearly as strong.
The piano carries the piece almost single-handedly, and the playing is the most technically accomplished among the twelve pieces. Quick, focused passages move through distinct phases: quiet contemplation, then tension, then release. It’s hopeful in a way that feels earned, and it stands on its own without needing additional context.
The title track benefits from introducing acoustic guitar into the mix, and it’s the only piece on the album to do so. The guitar carries the melody before passing it to the piano, and then to a cello, whose entry shifts the mood towards something more reflective and a little sadder. In a way, the progression mirrors the album’s stated themes very well.
These tracks share something in common. They are the moments where Grant steps away from the habits of film scoring and writes music that exists fully on its own terms. The interplay between piano and violin, the sensitivity with which the instruments respond to each other, the willingness to let a phrase sit in open space. This is where his voice comes through, and it’s a voice worth hearing. If the album had been built around more pieces of this calibre, it would have reached a different level entirely.
The pull of the familiar
The frustration with Sidera, and it is a gentle one, is that this voice doesn’t lead often enough. Between the highlights, several tracks settle back into Grant’s comfort zone of cinematic composition, and you can understand why. He has spent years scoring for film and television, and that language is deeply embedded in his writing. You could argue it would be strange if it wasn’t.
But tracks like “Rarefied” and “I Am Land,” while well-crafted, lean so far into the idiom of soundtrack music that they end up asking the listener to provide a story, an image, or at least some emotional context that the music alone doesn’t supply. That’s a lot to ask of someone sitting with an album on their own, and it’s simply not how most people listen to music today. It isn’t a question of quality. These are polished, capable pieces. It’s more that they demand an emotional investment the listener has no particular reason to make without something else to hold on to.
For those hoping for a standalone classical work, the album will sometimes feel like it's waiting for a film that never arrives.
In our interview, Grant spoke about how central the relationship between music and other media is to his thinking, and you can hear that conviction throughout Sidera. It’s a strength in his commissioned work, no doubt. But for a solo album, it becomes a limitation… Other albums in a similar space have navigated this transition more gracefully. Béatrice Martin’s score for the game Child of Light, for instance, uses comparable instrumentation but varies its textures more freely and never feels incomplete standing alone. Grant is not far off from achieving something similar, and tracks like “As If By Touch” are proof of that.
Closing thoughts
“Of Prairie Winds” arrives near the end as a welcome moment of calm: airy, open, free of sudden shifts. You listen and picture tranquil scenes, clouds, or a bird in the open sky. After the weight of what came before, the relief is appreciated. Finally, “The Last Reverie” closes the album warmly, like a happy ending where there is nothing left to do but look back.
Sidera is a good album, and at its peaks, it touches on greatness. The performances are excellent, the passion is evident, and there are individual tracks here that reward repeated listening. It doesn’t always escape the pull of its composer’s soundtrack instincts, and its emotional arc can sometimes feel like it’s asking more of the listener than it gives back. But none of that erases the fact that when Grant trusts his own voice and lets the music speak for itself, it speaks beautifully. More of that, and the next album could be something truly special.
7 / 10
– Favourite track: As If By Touch
– Enjoy Sidera on Apple Music
– Read our previous interview with Andrea Grant
Sidera by Andrea Grant
End of Review
By Maxim Gubric
© Vox Groovy Radio
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