2023-07-15 15:07:01
“The Orpheists was born as a personal project, with a lot of introspection, with some compositions that I wrote on the piano before and during the pandemic” dice Edo Costantini, the artist, photographer and founder of Kabinett and Kolapse (a platform that accounts for a search for content that reflects his concern for the world and its current ecological risk). And add: “To this long and isolated process, it seemed good to add new voices, other instruments, to start sharing my work with other musicians. Last year we released our first album, Silencio. (Four Songs for the End of Our Times). We are very happy with what we achieved.”
That “we achieved” at the time of the album available on Silencio platforms. (Four Songs for the End of Our Times), which has videos of the group that also convey the spirit of the band, involves names like the Brazilian percussionist Mauro Refoscothe cellist Gabriel Cabezas and the producer and musician Jake Owens. Suma Costantini: “In these challenging moments that we live in, we hope that our music will inspire more people to appreciate each moment and spend more time in nature, feeling our connection with trees, plants and having more awareness and empathy for living beings. with whom we live. and we share our planet.”
“We hope our music inspires more people to appreciate every moment”
—What do you think represents in that search what they have done so far?
—The album mixes classical or ancestral instruments with electronic sounds, representing the fusion of the past with the future. The compositions, at times minimalist, might resemble nature itself, combining silence and resonance to evoke the beauty and natural cycles of planet Earth. We might also say that it is a reflection on the fragility of nature and the damage that we are causing it, reaching the point of placing our species in danger of extinction. We shot a video for the song “First Snow on Katonah” during one of the biggest snow storms in New York in the last 100 years. It was directed by Ben Adler and includes several scenes of the serenity of the forest in that wild winter, and images that allow the audience to engage with those landscapes.
—How did you build the union that defines you?
—The Orpheists emerged in 2017, two years before the pandemic, when I started writing songs on the piano. Every morning I started my routine of writing music, as I progressed I realized how lonely and isolated I felt. So I thought regarding adding other sounds and textures by working with other musicians. I showed my work to Mauro Refosco, a Brazilian musician known for his work with David Byrne and as a backing percussionist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. He really liked him and that encouraged me to keep going. Then the cellist Gabriel Cabezas joined, a great musician who has worked with important symphony orchestras in the United States. He just played with the great Dudamel. In turn, the album was recorded and mixed by Jake Owen, producer, musician and co-founder of the music production company DO Sounds, who has toured internationally with renowned bands.
—What does the possibility of being able to create musically imply for you?
—The process of writing each piece sitting at the piano, on a sheet of paper, note by note and with a pencil, is something sublime, very enriching on a personal and spiritual level. I found peace and in those silent mornings, I discovered harmonies and melodies that I really liked. It is in the process of reading sheet music from composers I admire, that an idea comes up, and then it takes me a few weeks to develop and finish each one. The series of photographs that I have captured in recent years complete this creative process that continues to evolve.
—There is a fascinated power in your songs, in your aesthetics, with nature. How does nature mark your musical creation?
—The album Silence. Four Songs for the End of Our Times consists of four instrumental songs. During my writing process, I was completely immersed in the beautiful woods of Katonah, New York. He walked early at dawn and in the evenings almost every day through the forest, as a ritual. Each piece pays a subtle homage to these moments, to the seasons, to the passage of time and at the same time they are also reflective regarding the idea of an imminent global collapse. Compassionate and perhaps melancholic at times, the pieces convey a sentiment similar to the current ecological vision of our world: a planet destined to suffer at the hands of human consumption and neglect. The premiere of the album followed that line, we presented it live for the first time in June 2022 at the Praxis Gallery in New York, within the framework of the art exhibition “Herbarium. A Botanical Journey” by Delfina Braun, who did the cover art. The live performance ended up becoming an immersive experience, playing our music surrounded by the hanging drawings of plants, leaves, flowers, mushrooms made the guests enter an almost meditative state, as they told us at the end of playing.
—What do you feel sets you apart from other forms of music? What musical universes do you feel closest to?
—Our music comes from a very intimate and deep place. As I mentioned, I spend a fair amount of time reading and practicing music by other composers, and usually in this intense process, an idea comes up. Composers like Bach, Brahms, Chopin, Schumann, Debussy, Satie, Philip Glass, Max Richter, among others. Then, I take the time to build it to completion. This process takes a few weeks, or even months. And this is just the beginning, when I have the piece written for solo piano. I then sit down with the cellist, Gabriel, and we work together to integrate his musical voice into the composition. Later, in the recording studio, Mauro adds percussion and other sounds and textures. After this, he added other electronic keyboards. Together we layer and layer until the sound matches the image and the feeling we have. As you can see, the process is long and fascinating. And lastly, Jake does a great job mixing everything up.
—How is the tour of The Orpheists?
—We are going to continue recording songs and presenting the music live. At the end of the year we released the full album. Silent. (Four Songs for the End of our Times), we recorded three musicians. Moving forward I imagine more musicians may join as well.
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