‘Imago’ — the Latin word for image or portrait — only begins to suggest the imaginative and diverse musical worlds presented here by Italian pianist and composer Moira Lo Bianco.

The music floats effortlessly between the furthest reaches of harmonic possibility, melodic development, and rhythmic impulse in characterful performances that span the perceived gap between written and unwritten music.

Lo Bianco considers classical music a tremendous source of inspiration — one that is exciting and enriching outside the traditional context. It is in this spirit that the album opens with pieces by Louis Couperin — Prelude in D major — and Erik Satie — Véritables préludes flasques (pour un chien) — the latter of which imagines moments in the life of a dog.

These “unmeasured” compositions, though written centuries apart, forego traditional rhythmic notation and expression markings, respectively, allowing the performer to craft his or her own interpretation of the written pitches.

Lo Bianco later takes the Véritables préludes flasques and offers free form improvisations based upon them, paraphrasing the originals and creating original melodies that shed new light on what has been heard.

She also interprets another famous Satie piece in Re-imagination of Gnossienne No. 4. Lo Bianco applies her inventive faculties to far more recent works in Toxic/Come As You Are and Lady Gaga Dada (A Bad Romance). The first, a rhythmic fantasia, combines the pop song popularized by Britney Spears with Nirvana’s rock anthem, while the latter, a musical caricature of the hit ‘Bad Romance,’ reflects Lady Gaga’s transformational and ironic persona.

Lo Bianco’s sources and influences are even more widely varied however. Her original suite The Dancing Cat uses “odd meters” to electrifying effect, and draws upon the Middle-Eastern maqamat to inform its modal harmonic twists. Her Gregorian Effects introduces two plainchant melodies as lullaby and sensuous dance, and Bloom, Orange Tie was inspired by film scoring.

Situated at the heart of the album, Sketchbook is a series of piano miniatures that explore different compositional techniques much like visual sketches represent an image with a few lines. ‘Friduccia’ and ‘Charlie’s adventures’ are dedicated to Frida Khalo and Charlie Chaplin, respectively, while ‘Piney’s heart’ honors a friend of the composer. ‘Dear witch’ is a musical portrait of Lo Bianco’s mentor and piano teacher Stephany Tiernan. ‘The guesthouse’ is inspired by the poetry of Rumi, and ‘A bystander’ imagines the thought and feelings of a witness to something unknown.

The album ends with Arvo Pärt’s tranquil yet foreboding Für Alina. The theme drifts along the keyboard with a mind of its own, exposing the various harmonic spectra that live in different areas of the piano and directing the listener into their own imagination.