The track is 100% improvisation recorded during my studio sessions in 2023. I played a simple riff on a piano and then I decided to put several piano layers on top of it. It is a piece for 4 musicians (or for 8 hands). In 2024 it was played live for the first time during Piano Day festival in Saint Petersburg by four musicians and one grand piano.

Four

The composition that opens the album was originally written as an introduction to the track Birds, as an integral part of it. At concerts I always play them together.
 
Alternating major and minor harmonics, measured tempo, light, almost fairy-tale melody. It reminds me of a music box opening.
 
Even before the formation of the tracklist and before the final titles, I knew which piece would open the new album. “Departure” is a departure on the journey that I had been planning for several years, and which my friend photographer Matvey Pavlyukevichus would later join and fill it with the visual part (his photos are on the covers of the album and the singles).

Departure

The track Birds for me is one of the main ones on the album. I am very close to its expressiveness, completeness, dynamic development of the main themes and at the same time monotonous minimalist waltz-like riff. I used this riff for a very long time in improvisations and live sets, but when the climax came to it, the piece began to play fully and independently.
 
Birds is the most technically complex etude on the record. Since the entire album is played with one hand, the most difficult thing about this track is to reach the highest notes with your little finger in the climax parts and not lose a constant speed of playing. For this complexity and the opportunity to train my hand, I loved the work even more.
 
The title of the composition, “Birds,” came almost immediately after it was written. I won’t come up with deep meanings here: it came at the level of the first association - and I didn’t doubt it for a minute.
And later, my friend and photographer Matvey perfectly selected the visual image for this intense track: the Rubini rock on Franz Josef Land - a gloomy and loud giant, the largest bird colony in the Arctic.

Birds

The composition “Outmoded” is a kind of romance, a tribute to old style music with more classical chanting motifs. A fairly quick change of chords and a distinct, memorable melody make this work stand out from the entire collection. The main theme reminds me of Baroque music - and, in my opinion, would sound good on a harpsichord. Hence the name: “Outmoded” - old-fashioned, outdated.
 
The middle part of the composition, on the contrary, is designed in a more modern minimalist style. It's a real mantra, fixating on a limited sequence of harmonies and virtually no leading melodic line.
 
For me, Outmoded combines two musical eras, two different compositional techniques: melodic and minimalistic. And my main idea was to show the connection between them, to combine two radically different sounds into a single completed work.

Outmoded

An endless stream of shimmering sounds and harmonies, evenly filling each beat and all the space around.
Endless is built on a spiraling upward riff. Having reached the very top, the melody breaks down again and again to the next chord, starting a new ascent.
 
The measured tempo and smooth pulsation of the cyclical pattern of the piece immerse you in a real trance. I have always been attracted to this effect in electronic music and love to use it in my work. When playing such drawings on stage, sometimes I literally “switch off”, abstract from the audience and the present moment, fly away in my own thoughts, surrendering to the flow.
 
The sketch turned out to be calm, melancholic, endless. Hence its name - Endless.

Endless

The track that gave rise to the entire album. Forget is the first composition written with one right hand. Sitting at the piano one dark autumn evening several years ago, I accidentally played a melody that later became the main theme of the Forget etude. Back then I had no idea that this melody would turn into a whole project and album.
 
I remember being amazed at how full a quiet melody played with one hand could sound. The idea of ​​Forget seemed very interesting to me, ideally reflecting the concept of minimalism: to convey more to the listener, but by attracting fewer forces.
 
When I was learning to play the instrument as a child, for several years I could not play with both hands at the same time. It was very difficult. So all I could learn at that time were melodies. But simple melodies do not sound full - they need a harmonic basis. In the same sketch, harmony is literally woven into melodic patterns.
 
Therefore, for me, Forget, like the entire collection, is also a kind of gift from the future to myself, to a child who does not yet have sufficient technique, but really wants to play.

Forget

Another variation on the theme of infinity. Flow is one of my favorites on the new Blank record. My friend and photographer Matvey perfectly discerned the music of the waves in this work - the title picture for Flow was a storm filmed from the deck of an icebreaker cutting sea waves at speed.
 
Unlike other tracks on the album, Flow uses an uneven rhythmic pattern - 5/4. This is one of my favorite time signatures, which always attracts attention: an extra beat at the end of a smooth bar gives such music speed, haste, enhances emotions, makes you listen and look for strong beats.
 
On the one hand, there is the infinity and regularity of the flow, on the other, the swiftness due to the uneven size. This dissonance is what makes Flow one of my favorites on the new album.

Flow

While writing this track, the movie “Heat” was playing on TV in the background. Landscapes of snow-covered forest Alaska are firmly entrenched in my head - and since then I have forever associated this melody with snow.
 
Snow Song became the final puzzle in the existing mosaic of studies for the right hand - of all the compositions on the Blank album, it was the last to be written. A melancholy composition that makes you want to watch the falling snow.
 
The rather simple form is reinforced here by multiple modulations - the track changes harmonic mode four times, alternating between major and minor moods. Like the emotions that snow evokes: on the one hand - cold and gray, on the other - brevity and untouched beauty.

Snow Song

Of all the tracks from the new record, the Blank Space etude has the most interesting fate. It was written long before the release of the Blank album. In those years, I was very inspired by the music of the Icelandic composer Oulafur Arnalds - echoes of his lyrical northern motifs can be heard in the melody of Blank Space.
 
Then I couldn’t come up with an ending for the work and it collected dust in a draft on my desk for about eight years. But while working on a collection of studies for the right hand, I remembered an old sketch, put it under a new transcription - and it quickly acquired a full-fledged form.
 
Monotonous pulsation, fixation on one note as a leitmotif runs through the entire work. This monotony reflects the whole idea of ​​minimalism in my music. Blank Space waited in the wings for a long time, from idea to implementation, and took pride of place on the new record - it was this sketch that gave the name to the entire album. Blank is emptiness. Emptiness in the pauses between notes, emptiness in shots of snow-covered icy deserts, emptiness in each of us. This is not melancholy - this is a space for thoughts and feelings that everyone will fill in their own way.

Blank Space

Arrival is calming. For me, this melody is associated with the comfort of home, evening reading a book and tea with milk. I don’t remember when and how this music came to me, but it was definitely a state of harmony and calm.
 
The journey comes to an end - and the ship slowly docks at its home pier. The final chords sound. They sound quiet and monotonous, in continuation of the previous etude - but at the same time warm and solemn, in a major mode.
 
Arrival puts an end to the cycle of studies for the right hand. At this point I release the pedal and get up from the piano, and my character slowly descends the icebreaker ladder and steps onto land.

We're home again. Where sooner or later a new adventure will begin.

Arrival

Мы все соскучились по живим выступлениям и большим концертам, поэтому мы решили рассказать про наши любимые перформансы. Различия студийных записей и живых выступлений, лайвы на NPR Tiny Desk, почему важно слушать музыкантов в живую, когда группа "Scorpions" закончит свои прощальные туры и многое другое в нашем подкасте. 

Приятного прослушивания!

Ссылки на концерты с подкаста:

▪️ Justin Timberlake - https://youtu.be/v6xUgawDQB0

▪️ Arcade Fire  - https://youtu.be/BxIUwbb1Nzg

▪️ VULFPECK - https://youtu.be/rv4wf7bzfFE

▪️ Anderson Paak - https://youtu.be/ferZnZ0_rSM

▪️ Roger Waters (Pink Floyd) - https://youtu.be/n2Y7E3k86QQ

▪️ Pink Floyd (PULSE) - https://youtu.be/E9Iau_oik-E 

▪️ Chris Dave trio - https://youtu.be/T39ZaFT1kA0

▪️ Nils Frahm - https://youtu.be/izhGLGPmvIU

▪️ Snarky Puppy - https://youtu.be/L_XJ_s5IsQc

▪️ Tyler, The Creator - https://youtu.be/N1w-hDiJ4dM

▪️ John Mayer - https://youtu.be/dKzrJR2wvTA

▪️ Mac Miller - https://youtu.be/QrR_gm6RqCo


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Наши любимые концерты #3

WISWILAS PODCAST — подкасты, в которых мы изучаем интересные жанры, знакомимся с новой музыкой и просто ведем приятные разговоры.

Наши любимые концерты #3

WISWILAS

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