It’s been eight years since the neo-classical composer and pianist Alexandra Stréliski self-released her critically acclaimed Pianoscope LP. Since that time her music has appeared in Jean-Marc Vallée‘s films Dallas Buyers Club (2013) and Demolition (2016), as well as in the trailer for the HBO series Big Little Lies (2017). The artist, who is of Polish Jewish descent and grew up between Paris and Montreal, creates searching and cinematic compositions that seek to return listeners to a form of lost sincerity. She explains: “A piano, on its own, is a very vulnerable thing, and I want to share this moment with the listener.?
The artist is currently readying her INSCAPE LP for release on October 5th via the Canadian label Secret City Records. Recorded in the Fall of 2017 at Studio PM in Montreal, the upcoming album was co-produced by Maxime Navert–who also worked production on Pianoscope–as well as by Stréliski herself. Discussing the new work, the pianist offers:
“Inscape was an existential crisis. A year where everything capsized and I had to go through various interior landscapes ? hectic, beautiful and painful at the same time. I found myself in a space filled with grey areas that I didn?t know how to escape.”
“Plus tôt” offers our first listen in on INSCAPE, and the video for the track was directed by Edith Jorisch. Collaging various strands of found footage including old 16mm home movies and science films, the intimate visuals explore our human place within the cosmos. Opening with the question “Are you part of the universe, or is the universe part of you,” Jorisch’s video alternates between micro and macro views of life, at times compositing them into a surreal flow of images that combine the dichotomy into a continuous, indistinguishable whole.
