Julia Thomsen almost didn’t play piano on this one. That’s the detail that stuck with me after hearing “Meet You In Nottinghill,” because once you know it, you start listening for the moment she steps in, and it changes how the whole thing lands.
Raphael Beaudon carries the first stretch alone, and his playing has this unfinished quality, like he’s still deciding where the melody wants to go. No rush toward a hook, no obvious build. Just a man and a piano working something out. When Thomsen’s strings finally enter, they don’t announce themselves. They slide underneath what he’s already playing, thickening the air around it rather than competing with it.
I’ve heard a lot of first time collaborations that sound like two people negotiating for space. This doesn’t. Maybe it’s because Thomsen took a smaller role than usual, letting Beaudon lead instead of matching him note for note. Whatever the reason, the chemistry sounds earned rather than engineered.
The track runs a little over three minutes and never once reaches for a big finish. That’s the choice I respect most about it. Notting Hill, the neighborhood, gets romanticized constantly in film and music, all cobblestones and golden hour light. This piece skips the postcard version and goes for something quieter, more like standing on a corner remembering someone you used to meet there.
By the end, the piano and strings aren’t really separate voices anymore. They’ve folded into each other. It’s a small, patient piece of music, and it earns every second of that patience.
You can listen here.
