Slott's in

The Home of Laughter, an album of piano works released this week by 26-year-old Dubliner Luke Slott (pictured), was recorded in the ballroom of Mohonk Mountain House, a Victorian castle in upstate New York in the heart of the Hudson Valley. It follows hot on the heels of Slott's promising debut album last year Don't Go Back to Sleep, a collection of 10 pieces for solo piano.

Slott grew up in Dublin in a family of actors, musicians, writers and choreographers and is the son of the actress Susan Slott and a brother of electronic whiz kid Mike Slott of the hip hop duo, Heralds of Change.

Luke learned to play trumpet at the age of 12 from his father, the late Mike Nolan, who founded Ireland's longest running jazz club. Having studied classical piano at RIAM, he signed a major record deal at the age of l8 and later initiated a series of popular multi-cultural house concerts in Dublin. Now based in the US, his music has been compared to Erik Satie and Yann Tiersen, but the haunting melodies in Don't Go Back to Sleepalso reveal his love of Chopin. See lukeslott.com.