Take Control is the new album by Romanian pianist and composer Mischa Blanos. A bold retro-avant-garde statement, it blends contemporary classical piano, nu jazz, breakbeat, electronica and prepared piano. Both soundscape and manifesto, the album is a call for unity, freedom, and resilience in an age of control.

“I was angry, but also present. I wanted to write music that refuses fear, that turns frustration into energy. If you’ve ever felt wired in, locked out, or crushed by the system, this is your soundtrack,” says Blanos.

Blanos’ signature Piano & Electronics approach drives the record, fusing acoustic piano, Rhodes, live drums, and high-voltage synths into a crossover sound that bridges concert hall elegance and club energy. Veteran jazz drummer Liviu Pop brings rhythmic depth and fire.

The tracks unfold like a journey: Basilica blends classical harmonies, jazz rhythms, and electronics in a meditation on modern spirituality. Busted, a prepared piano piece rooted in Romanian folklore and featured on ARTE TV, echoes the metallic timbre of the cimbalom. Take Control is the high-energy anthem of the album, with Blanos himself singing a rallying call for unity. Love in Motion channels breakbeat energy, turning clubbing into freedom, while Rain Give You a Hug offers a slow piano-and-drums embrace under one sky. Urgent jazz fusion drives Pale Land, Rhodes-led and dark-toned, while El Camino is a modern pilgrimage of piano, drums, and electronica. The Light That Remains breaks hearts with a desolate Rhodes solo, and Prayer Room closes in dialogue between piano and electronics, confronting inherited memory and trauma.

The visual identity of Take Control is shaped by Marius Bercea’s Pack Up the Modern Sun. Emerging from the Cluj School, Bercea’s work explores the tension between lived experience in post-communist Romania and the ruins of global consumerism, with exhibitions spanning New York to Tokyo, Berlin to Los Angeles.