fter spending years together recording in the outfits Madder Rose Mary Lorson and Billy Coté released a highly regarded record last year (Tricks For Dawn) as Saint Low. They’ve wasted no time since then and are back releasing new music, but this time it’s under their own names.

Piano Creeps is a pretty self-explanatory album. While it’s not so much the piano that does the creeping, the record has an extremely haunting vibe about it as a result of vast selection of instruments (including that piano). While Lorson and Coté are the primary figures involved in writing and performing the music, they do benefit from a talented supporting cast including violinist Joe Myer and drummer Matt Saccuccimorano, who appear on most tracks.

The majority of Piano Creeps’ music sounds like a soundtrack, due to the instrumental nature of most tracks. Lorson does sing on three of the songs, and when she does, she gives the album a certain unexpected vitality. The instrumentals work fine together, but Lorson’s voice has such a soothing effect that the album might have benefited from her increased involvement in this area. With her singing on tracks like “Americana #1" and “See The Stars”, the pace not only picks up (which isn’t necessarily needed), but the eerieness fades slightly, taking the edge off the heavy brooding sense the rest of the songs carry.

While it is very consistent in how it is organized, the album seems to fade away from its perspective only once with the undesirable Latin sounds of “Che”, which is completely out of place on this album. Beginning with a dark electronic synth, the song turns into something dreadfully close to easy listening. It is, though, the only real apparent weak spot on the record.

Piano Creeps is a nice and spooky batch of ambient soundtracking. The only problem with it is that there was no motion picture made for it. Although some songs may have been written for certain soundtracks, the album in its entirety seems designed for one film of its own. As an album to sit down and enjoy, it succeeds, but it’s a shame you have to imagine how it would accompany a visual instead of seeing one already made. (Yes, I do lack a creative imagination and I suffer from it)