"Iron Stage Curtain" is a captivating sonic journey crafted around Mihai Eminescu's poignant stanza from "Scrisoarea a treia" (Letter III), brought to life by Nora Labancz's evocative recitation. Through a multi-layered musical arrangement, the stanza is reimagined and remixed, with each iteration exploring a different emotional landscape.

The music, composed and arranged over several takes, weaves together elements of ambient, classical, and aggressive heavy interludes, echoing the intensity and complexity of the poem's themes. Labancz's voice serves as a guiding light through the shifting musical terrain, leading listeners through moments of despair, resilience, and existential questioning.

"Iron Stage Curtain" invites listeners to immerse themselves in a rich tapestry of sound and verse, where the boundaries between spoken word and music blur, offering a visceral and immersive experience that resonates long after the final note fades away.

Well, sit down on the ground and howl! If you
Feel like it, howl. The moon you're howling to
You can invoke, or scream it's name instead.
It's deader than the flesh on the grinning dead.
Whimper like Job, for what he failed to master
You've understood, standing on broken plaster.
Down on the past, which hellish flame devours,
This firewall now, an iron stage curtain, lowers.

Iron Stage Curtain (w/ Nora Labancz) extended version

Pianist. Composer. Arranger. Improviser of the  Art Form-Jazz in all it's myriad forms. Forever in the Now.
Music.

Iron Stage Curtain (w/ Nora Labancz) extended version

Carlton Holmes