Composer: Evgueni Galperin
Performer: Maria Vasyukova, Sergei Nakariakov, Sebastien Hurtaud
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: ECM
Catalogue: 4857282
Release: 2022
Size: 389 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
01. This Town Will Burn Before Dawn
02. Cold Front
03. Oumuamua, Space Wanderings
04. Soudain, le vide
05. Kaddish
06. The Wheel Has Come Full Circle
07. La Lettre d’un disparu
08. After The Storm
09. Don’t Tell
10. Loplop im Wald
The ECM New Series debut of Evgueni Galperin is one of the most strikingly original and evocative albums of the year.
A composer of Russian and Ukrainian heritage, currently based in France, Galperin is working with sound, texture and dynamics in new and powerfully expressive ways. As he explains, the sound world of Theory of Becoming represents an “augmented reality of acoustic instruments, created from recordings made with real and virtual instruments. The numerous transformations the instruments undergo allow me to capture their acoustic nature while also adding techniques and colours impossible to produce in reality…”
Galperin’s compositions address wide ranging subjects: from the resilience of hope in the face of destruction to meditations on the journey of the soul, as well as travels through space and through the magical forests of Max Ernst’s paintings.
Theory of Becoming was recorded and mixed 2020-21 in Paris, at Studio EPG and Studios de la Seine and was produced by Manfred Eicher.
Composer Evgueni Galperine has spent much of his career as a film composer, working, often with his brother Sacha, not only in Europe but with such American directors as Barry Levinson and Barry Sonnenfeld. With Theory of Becoming, he turns to abstract composition, and the results are an intriguing mix. Galperine’s cinematic background is clearly audible; the album comprises short (mostly three- to six-minute) cuts that have some kind of more or less programmatic content, but it is quite a bit more economical than his film music, and it includes electronic sounds and sampling to a greater degree. Much of the music is played by Galperine himself, augmented on various tracks by a trumpet, cello, or voice, but these are not the only acoustic sounds; the sampling aspect is key. Galperine calls his method an “augmented reality of acoustic instruments, created from recordings made with real and virtual instruments. The numerous transformations the instruments undergo allow me to capture their acoustic nature while also adding techniques and colours impossible to produce in reality.” Galperine’s own notes point the listener toward what he had in mind with some of the tracks, and he remains a powerfully representational composer. He is certainly not the only film composer to write independent music, but the mixture here is unique and is highly recommended to those interested in the nexus between film music and the contemporary concert tradition. ECM provides splendid engineering at the Studio EGP in Paris.