1 концерт // 19.00 // SOLD OUT
2 концерт // 21.30 // БИЛЕТЫ В ПРОДАЖЕ

Englishman Greg Haines is the author of a half-an-hour-long composition Komarovo — an esoteric acoustic ambient piece that was conceived under the influence of the sacral music of Arvo Pärt and performed on a grand piano and a church organ. It’s not exactly clear what’s the connection between this composition and the summer community near the Gulf of Finland, where Dmitry Shostakovich used to compose, and where the eccentric music genius Oleg Karavajchuk lived, but for a certainty such connection exists.

Greg Haines, who began studying cello and piano at an early age, is awalking encyclopedia of music. At the beginning of his career, his music was under obvious influence from the academic minimalist composers such as Steve Reich, Philipp Glass and Gavin Bryars. His contemporary compositions include more and more musical traces from all around the world. The composer’s fourth album, Where We Were, which came out in 2013 on a well-known German label Denovali, is full of genetic traces of the African music’s polyrhythmy, virtuoso use of space and echoes, reminiscent of such dub music classics as King Tubby and Lee Scratch Perry, coloratura synthesised textures of Tangerine Dream, and hypnotic rhythms of the Basic Channel techno label. In Greg’s latest compositions, the melodies performed on traditional acoustic instruments, such as grand piano, strings, vibraphone and percussion, are interlaced with a slowly moving massif of electronic sounds, and it’s a separate pleasure to analyse this array of sounds, taking it apart into its separate components. His devotion to dub and old electronic music led Greg Haines to build an impressive collection of analog synthesisers, drum machines, tape delays, and tape recorders.

Greg Haines is a very versatile and active musician. In addition to his own creative work, he is a member of the improvisational art ensemble The Alvaret Ensemble; he alsocomposes music for the Dutch National Ballet and Royal Opera, records collaborative compositions from Peter Broderick from Efterklang, and from time to time goes on tours with his friend Nils Frahm. Haines’ concerts are more than an emotional session of diverse music — they are a fascinating one-man virtuoso performance for a grand piano and a set of analog electronic devices.

1 концерт // 19.00 // SOLD OUT
2 концерт // 21.30 // БИЛЕТЫ В ПРОДАЖЕ

Moscow resident Dmitry Evgrafov is only 23, but he already has four albums out, with the fifth one upcoming. The delicate and introspective The Quiet Observation will come out in mid-October 2016 on the Fat Cat Records label. Following last year’s Collage, this is Dmitry Evgrafov’s second LP with the reputable British recording label, known for the production of LPs by Max Richter, Johan Johansson, and Hauschka. Despite his young age, the Russian pianist, composer and sound designer fits really well into the company of internationally acclaimed leaders of neo-Classical movement.

Dmitry Evgrafov recorded his first album with musical sketches for a grand piano and string trio, compiled in the GarageBand program, at the tender age of 17. This experiment by a self-taught musician didn’t go unnoticed, and, impressed with the emotional range of Evgrafov’s compositions, the Scottish record studio Sonic Reverie Records published his second LP, Lying on Your Shoulder. The next important step in Dmitry’s career came in form of the meeting with Nils Frahm — the two musicians performed together at Moscow International House of Music in June of 2012. Conversations with the German composer and the move from Moscow to a country house prompted Dmitry to compose a quiet LP of twilight piano pieces Pereehali, which caught the fancy of talent scouts from the Fat Cat Records.

Unlike the Collage that was full of electronic experiments, the new LP, The Quiet Observation, signals Evgrafov’s return to the world of acoustic sounds. The recording begins and ends with emulated sounds of a church organ, and contains a number of flickering minimal pieces for piano, bell-lyre and strings. The composer himself compares the experience of listening to The Quiet Observation to watching a play of shadows on the wall: the listener can interpret the perceived images on the basis of his own sensory experience, but in any case he remains an observer of the whimsical pattern borne out of the confrontation between sound and silence.

Taking the stage at the SOUND UP series concert, Dmitry Evgrafov will perform compositions from the Collage and The Quiet Observation LPs as well as several new and previously unpublished pieces.