Karol Beffa - Galerie des glaces (2023) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

The pieces in this collection, recorded in September 2020 at the Sextan studios, are Karol Beffa's fourth album of improvisations. Once again, his audience suggested the themes.

In some cases, the musician drew on various eras to feed his inspiration. In Angelus, a mystical dimension is incorporated into an intentionally archaic framework which evokes Gregorian plainchant. Sarabande funèbre, Le Songe du Cantor and Souvenir de Leipzig are all touched by a slightly romanticised Baroque. More overtly romantic in comparison, Rosamunde flirts with Frankish harmonies, while Adagietto makes explicit references to Mahler through its overlapping structure. As for Calamity Jane and Birdland, their rhythmic shimmy gives them a distinctly jazzy feel.

With Las Meninas and Nights in the Gardens of Spain, the audience is drawn into a spatial rather than a temporal disorientation, as the improviser takes them to a Spain of fantasized Moorish architecture.

Another series of pieces features characters: a playful Charlot, a disjointed puppet; a Joueur de vielle, reminiscent of Schubertian music; a Funambule who wobbles on his musical rope, torn between the attraction and repulsion of the void.

Particular sound effects have sometimes been sought. In Fragments d'explosifs, these take the form of explosions, which tear apart an anguished musical fabric woven of gasping and choking. The tinkling of bells is scattered throughout Carillon nocturne and Clocher englouti. And the hypnotic power they create is echoed in the pulsating pedal play of Drops and Le Belvédère. As for Piano préparé (and its anagrammatic twin Opéra en papier), the title speaks for itself.

TRACKLIST

1. Karol Beffa - Kafka's Nightmare
2. Karol Beffa - Birdland
3. Karol Beffa - Las Meninas
4. Karol Beffa - Piano préparé
5. Karol Beffa - Le Songe du Cantor
6. Karol Beffa - Nights in the Gardens of Spain
7. Karol Beffa - Adagietto
8. Karol Beffa - Drops
9. Karol Beffa - Le Belvédère
10. Karol Beffa - Charlot
11. Karol Beffa - Le Joueur de vielle
12. Karol Beffa - Le Funambule
13. Karol Beffa - Angelus
14. Karol Beffa - Fragments d'explosifs
15. Karol Beffa - Galerie des glaces
16. Karol Beffa - Sarabande funèbre
17. Karol Beffa - Opéra en papier
18. Karol Beffa - Le Clocher englouti
19. Karol Beffa - Calamity Jane
20. Karol Beffa - Rosamunde
21. Karol Beffa - Carillon nocturne
22. Karol Beffa - Souvenir de Leipzig
23. Karol Beffa - Escher's Woodcuts



Thanks to the Original customer.