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EX LIBRIS
The album is
inspired by some of my favourite books. Due to the choices made, the music
depicting the moods and stories of these books ranges in its style from early
medieval, through Japanese and Eastern European, to electronic atmospheres. The
connecting pieces entitled 'Turning Pages' provide a little pause between the
literary adventures, attempting to conjure the atmosphere of a quiet library and
the moods of the imaginary reader...
Please note: Real Player is needed to play the track samples.
Sprinkled with Hungarian ethnic elements, the opening piece tries to evoke the beginning of an imaginary journey through pages of fascinating stories, hidden in old books...
This magnificent piece of medieval literature evoked in the style of early medieval music, blended with electronics... A frivolous, playful bunch of people gathered together, telling stories, and forgetting everything about the outside world decimated by the Plague...
3. Dante – Divina Comedia (Hell / Heaven / Purgatory*)
A brave, hopefully to some extent successful attempt to evoke the moods created by the magnificent visions of Dante... with music that emerges from dark atmospherics, ventures into choral and church music, and finishes with one of the most ethereal pieces of music I ever heard, a movement from Bach's organ concerto in A minor.
A link piece, introducing the more grandiose literary visions that follow...
5. Sun Tzu – The Art Of War (In Memoriam Akira Kurosawa)
Although of Chinese origin, it always conjured in me the grandeur of Kurosawa's visions... The track hence became quite Japanese in its ethnic flavours, moving from quiet contemplations to heroic marches marked by Taiko drums...
One of the greatest pieces of Romantic literature ranges from gentle romance to huge battlescenes and feelings of loss... It was asking for a lush symphonic treatment, covering a range of emotions from love, heroism to sorrow.
A more atmospheric link piece, introducing the third section of the album, which ventures out into the domains of utopias and negative utopias...
8. Bradbury – Fahrenheit 451 (City / Chase / Escape / Exile)
A haunting, poetic vision of a society where books are banned... a story about censorship in its widest sense and about freedom of thought. The novel created moods that are described here, moving through key stages of the story...
9. Lem – Solaris (Apparitions / The Ocean)
Perhaps the most philosophical sci-fi novel ever written, made into a meditative, legendary film by Andrey Tarkovsky... about self-discovery as a race, while exploring the existence of different beings in the Universe. Could we really handle something truly different, if we can't handle our own ways?
10. Turning Pages IV. (Closing)
Leaving behind the empire of silent bookshelves and pages filled with stories...
All tracks composed, arranged, performed and engineered by Levente, except:
(*) Purgatory section based on the Adagio movement in J.S. Bach's Organ Concerto In A Minor, BWV593.
Cover design by Levente.
Many thanks to Andreas Sumerauer for the rare and exquisite medieval instrument sound sample libraries.
Additional 'turning pages' sounds on tracks 'Turning Pages I. ... IV.' recorded and processed by Levente.
© 2002 Levente