Belle Chen at Hallé St Michael’s

When was the last time you set off for a walk with no route in mind, just seeing where you end up? Belle Chen makes music that feels a bit like that. A piano phrase might begin in one place, before picking up electronics and stretching into something more spacious, before slipping somewhere else entirely. In her album Ravel In The Forest, which reached number seven in the UK Official Specialist Classical Chart, she guides listeners through imagined landscapes of ancient woodland, quiet clearings and tropical canopies.

A London-based pianist and composer with roots in Taiwan and Australia, Chen sits somewhere between classical, jazz and experimental music. Her music never sounds like a dutiful genre blend, though; it’s somehow elusive, at once precise and mysterious.

Her background is firmly rooted in the piano – she’s given concerts everywhere from the Royal Albert Hall to Melbourne Recital Centre – yet her instinct is to open that sound outwards, layering electronic textures in a way that feels adjacent to sound art. Often improvising, she lets her pieces evolve rather than resolve. You might hear traces of Ravel’s colour, Sakamoto’s spaciousness or Hisaishi’s melodic clarity, but they arrive refracted, absorbed into a broader, more exploratory language.

The live stage is a natural home for this kind of fluidity, with Chen moving between piano, synths, melodica, electronics and found sound. Her debut at the EFG London Jazz Festival in 2024 earned a standing ovation, with Brian Eno calling her “original and provocative… it feels like the sense of discovery”.

At Hallé St Michael’s, Chen performs solo, drawing on material from Ravel In The Forest as well as newer work. It’s an intimate setting that suits her music, which eschews big climaxes in favour of quiet, unfolding momentum, drawing you in gradually and rewarding your close attention.