Nocturna Joachim Spieth / Andrew Thomas

Nocturna is the first collaborative album between New Zealand musician Andrew Thomas and German artist Joachim Spieth. Inspired by fleeting moments of beauty in nature, where light illuminates and then disappears into the shadows, Thomas began composing on the piano during Summer in the Southern Hemisphere. Gathering piano fragments like treasured relics, he passed them on to Spieth some months later, as Summer was now dawning in the Northern Hemisphere.

Spieth wove the piano’s delicate tones into something new, preserving its organic essence while illuminating certain sounds and removing others. The textures within Nocturna are shaped by light, time, and the discernment of each artist - as what to keep became as important as what to leave out. The shadow of what used to be allows a strange and delicate mood to arise. Though the piano remains at the heart of the album, Spieth’s intricate sonic layers form a spectral web around the immersive soundscape, while the piano’s fragile notes climb tentatively like tendrils of a plant.

Nocturna sits on the threshold of ambient and modern classical, with elements of sound design that make it an especially pleasing piece with deeper listening. As Nocturna unfolds, it transports the listener into a space of contemplation and mystery—expansion and enclosure, and perhaps reflecting the increase in nocturnal activity of nature on a Summers evening. Light and shadow, the duality of hemispheres, and the promise of Summer’s arrival converge, and then fade once more into the night.