Jazz, free improvisation, contemporary classical music and contemporary poetry are key elements fused into this new art song project that began as an experiment to see how far I could push the inherent tension between music and text. The striking results of this new art song project are, arguably, cinematic.
YOU CAN LISTEN AND PRE-ORDER The One and the Other here
March 12, 2021 brings to fruition a process that’s undergone numerous stages of incubation for the past few years.
This song cycle is a process driven exploration into what I perceive as the inherent tension between music and text, where ‘one’ takes the lead with the ‘other ‘allocated to a subordinate role. Sometimes they are engaged in a courtship dance, other times they’re awkwardly at odds with one another. This tension is used to create narrative, drama and even composition techniques. At times the focus is on poetic imagery, with music ‘word painting’, as the term is defined traditionally in classical music; other times the focus is on musical elements, with text falling impressionistically into the background; at yet other times a guided free improvisation section may take-off as a kind of ‘illustration’ from a line of poetry. In “The One and the Other” three-part suite that names the entire project, poetry and music each take turns episodically and interchangeably taking the lead throughout the songs.
Says A.F Moritz: multi-award winning American-Canadian poet, and Poet Laureate of the City of Toronto 2019-2022:
“Lara Solnicki’s great vocal range is matched by an equal emotional range, from intimacy to mystery, from sorrow to rage, exultancy to regret. A poet of the most advanced kind, Solnicki is a master in her own modern and post-modern poetic mode, which makes powerful use of the techniques of discontinuity, surprising imagery and juxtaposition of images, and sudden unexpected leaps of thought and mood. The originality and enigma of the language, within an overall clarity, is involving, and expresses itself first emotionally. She finds a way to give language all the suggestiveness of music, the way that gracing the notes can give the piano a sense of the tonal continuity of horns and reeds and the voice.”
“Each song is a miniature movie,” says album producer, multi-instrumentalist and composer Jonathan Goldsmith, who also happens to be one of Canada’s most celebrated film composers. A Dolby Atmos Immersive Audio/3D Music version of the album will also be available.
The poets Charles Baudelaire, René Char, Sylvia Plath, Octavio Paz, along with composers Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, J.S Bach and free jazz are the album’s major influences.
The One and the Other personnel: Lara Solnicki (music, texts, vocals), Jonathan Goldsmith (producer, keyboards, electronics, electric bass, electric guitar), Peter Lutek (alto saxophone, electro-acoustic clarinet and bassoon), Hugh Marsh(electric violin), Rob Piltch (electric and acoustic guitars), Scott Peterson (electric and acoustic bass), Rich Brown (electric bass) and Davide Di Renzo (drums). Recorded, mixed and mastered by Jeff Wolpert, Desert Fish Studio, Toronto, Canada.
Please stay tuned for more developments. Wishing you all a happy and healthy 2021 year!
Lara