Five Faves: Focus Music (Piano)

Of the hundreds of “focus music” albums that helped me really “lock in” at work, here are five of my piano-focused favorites.

Mar 02, 2025

Five Faves is an ongoing listicle series presenting a collection of five of my favorites from a specific category—songs, albums, videos, books, movies, quotes—just about anything is fair game. This isn’t intended to be a definitive “best of” list but more of an in-the-moment list of things that have moved me or brought me joy.

When I began my working career in the mid-90s it really wasn’t socially acceptable—or technologically easy for that matter—to listen to music at work. There were always those that would find ways to listen, either with a small transistor radio (god, that makes me sound old!) or a portable CD player. But the introduction of portable MP3 players changed everything. While many people think of the iPod—introduced in October 2001—as the first portable MP3 player, the devices had already been around in some form for half a dozen years. As an avid music lover and a voracious "early adopter", I boarded the MP3 train earlier than most, ultimately owning three early MP3 players before finally caving in the mid-2000s and buying an iPod (although I never installed iTunes, a bloated and intrusive piece of software I hated with a passion).

I started in 1999 with the Rio 500, a flash-based MP3 player with a whopping 64MB of storage (yes, that's an M not a G!). With a USB cable for connecting to the computer and an expansion card slot, this was a top of the line player. Within a couple years I had upgraded to the Creative Nomad Jukebox, a hard drive-based device that increased storage capacity 100 times to a massive 6GB! The downside was the size—essentially comparable to a portable CD player—but that seemed like a fair trade off for the storage capacity. I eschewed Apple's original iPod (with storage sizes of 5 or 10GB) and instead upgraded in 2003 to the Rio Karma. A beautiful and feature-packed little player, the Karma had 20GB of storage and included a docking station with Ethernet file transfers while also supporting multiple audio codecs including Ogg Vorbis, FLAC and WMA. Fellow Substacker Chris Jennings wrote about his love of the Rio Karma last year and it's definitely worth checking out if you're interested in the tech. I'd ride with that player until 2005 when I upgraded to an 80GB 5th Generation iPod.

After that brief history of my dalliances with MP3 tech, how about we get back to the topic at hand - listening to music at work! I don't recall exactly when I started listening to music on the job, but it was definitely in 2005 or later as I already had my iPod. After moving from investments into the insurance industry in 2004, I found myself tasked with processing massive spreadsheets of data, a somewhat mind-numbing, yet also strangely fulfilling, task that required a different level of focus than my previous work exploits. I found music to be immensely empowering for these extended sessions of data wrangling and began leaning heavily into listening to music at work.

As my career developed and my responsibilities increased from data manipulation and risk modeling to higher level database work, programming, strategic risk management, and project work, I began to find my music habits evolving. While I could listen to just about anything while plowing through spreadsheets, when it came to strategic and creative "deep work" I found that music could be more of a distraction than a support. Through the research on productivity and efficiency that I undertook in an effort to combat the distraction inherent with my ADD (and, as it turns out, the emergence of moderate depression), I came to understand that "focus music" was better suited for specific types of work.

While numerous studies/reports/opinions have been published on what sort of music works best in sharpening and maintaining focus for "deep work", ultimately it took some experimentation on my part. I discovered that, for me, focus music generally (there are exceptions) falls into two broad categories: instrumental music or music with non-English lyrics. Obviously this provides a massive universe of available music and I found myself diving into genres I'd never really explored before. Over several years I amassed a list of over 130 albums and a couple dozen playlists from which to draw when music for deep focus was required.

Today I'm sharing five favorites from my list of go-to piano-centered focus music albums. For each of the albums, which are sorted by release date, I provide an excerpt from a review (or album release page), a YouTube link to a song from the album, and links to the albums on both Bandcamp and Spotify. If you enjoy any of these albums, please consider purchasing them directly on Bandcamp, particularly on Bandcamp Fridays (March 7th is the next one), when the artists you support receive 100% of profits from purchases.

Happy listening!!

Brambles - Charcoal (2012)

Excerpt from review by James Knapman (igloo magazine):

“Thanks to Dawson’s sensitive ear for melody, Charcoal elicits far deeper, more emotionally complex responses than many analogous modern classical works: memorable but never manipulative, profoundly contemplative instead of merely introspective, poignant without being melancholy and deeply affecting rather than just comforting.”

Julien Marchal - Insight III (2017)

From review by Greg Brooks:

“Marchal takes this concept of each song being each listener’s own insight and really makes it it work. Like the best instrumental music, the 10 pieces on Insight III tell stories without using words. The removal of the human voice gives these pieces an enigmatic quality, and with his songwriting and playing laid bare with only a piano at hand there is a poignancy and contemplative quality that are endlessly attractive.”

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Federico Albanese - By the Deep Sea (2018)

From album release page:

"...a clue to the composition's significance lies in the album's title: this rock, he says, "is also where I imagined Lord Byron writing his poem 'The Sea'." The poem is notable for it's juxtaposition of concepts centered around ideas of society and solitude, and for acknowledging the pleasure of pursuing routes others have not. It's a fitting source for the album's title: these are themes familiar to Albanese, who wrote the music over "a year in which a lot happened, stuff that's difficult to explain. These twelve songs are moments that needed to be described. Music is the vehicle I've chosen to express my deepest feelings, the ones that, even to me, are difficult to understand." By The Deep Sea exhibits some of his work's richest instrumentation. Naturally, Albanese - who produced the album- provides it's crucial instrument, piano, as well as Rhodes piano, synthesisers, Hammond organ, electric, acoustic and bass guitars, plus field recordings. "All albums are personal in a way," Albanese concludes, "but BY THE DEEP SEA really tells the story of an inner space buried in a deep self." Without doubt his most accomplished work to date, it insists on full immersion."

Poppy Ackroyd - Resolve (2018)

Excerpt from review by Daniel Sylvester (exclaim!):

"Resolve, the third full-length from the classically trained pianist, actually works as a sturdier introduction to her work and career, as the ten-track LP expertly demonstrates Ackroyd's outstanding ability to edit, process and re-shape her playing to create ethereal post-classical compositions. In 48 crystalline minutes, Ackroyd manages to lay down a collection of cascading melodies that would make for an enchanting listen even in their simplest forms.
But it's the way Ackroyd includes tactile sounds, like key taps and audible breaths, alongside sparse but effective swells of strings and low-key computer-assisted effects, that gives tracks like the analogue pulsating "Light," the swelling "Quail" and the adventurous "Luna" their distinct character."

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Bruno Sanfilippo - Pianette (2019)

Excerpt from review by Simon Smith (Higher Plain Music):

“Bruno Sanfilippo has made my favorite work of his with 'Pianette'. It's unashamedly new-classical in its composition, eerie with its tense production and melodic dissonance and oh so subtle in how it uses the piano to create mechanical life. The piano is easily one of the most expressive instruments on Earth, so playing these two ideas off against each other has created an inspired album of muted greatness”

As always, I’d love to hear what you thought about this installment and the albums featured. When you’re finished reading and listening, please hop into the comments.

Do you listen to music at work? Never? All the time? Somewhere in between?
Are there specific genres that work better to help you dig in and focus on deep work?
Did you already know of these artists or albums?
Which of the five was your favorite?
What are some of your go-to focus music albums? Please share a link!

Joy in the Journey