After about 6 years that I have composed my first CD, I have decided to record another one with the title 'The Mark of Innocence'. Here is why:
In life, as in music, simplicity is of immense importance. As a child, everyone starts off in extreme simplicity and participates in a myriad wonders that are soon lost or forgotten. This is not a sign of our times only. It is unavoidable and should therefore be treated as such. As complexity increases in life, so does in music.
I remember the time when I was a child and found myself in front of the piano. We used to go to family friends that had a piano at their home in Athens and while everyone would be discussing, I would sit in front of the piano without even being able to reach for the pedals just yet. There was no point for that after all. Just the sheer amazement of something that was in front of me and that could produce so beautiful sounds was enough. It was all that was important. It was everything, for one moment and for no moment at all.
There is nothing more ephemeral and temporal than sound. You play a note and after a while the sound dies. It can artificially be kept alive for a little while longer by sustaining it but the conclusion is the same. The sound dissolves into nothingness and can only be followed by another sound. Evolution in music, and in music playing, shares this problem. We try to keep away from it by condensing sound so that we do not escape musical death for as long as a musical piece lasts. The problem is therefore one of continuity. We evolve so much in our playing and in producing sounds that we forget to keep quite. We forget to listen. Listen carefully. And what is it that we forget to listen? The answer is silence. As important is sound, equally important is the silence within it and between different sounds.
A child therefore, like the child in the cover of the album, finds itself in front of a piano. The playing of the piano as a child is simple but it quickly evolves. It should be no surprise therefore that the title of the first piece is 'The First Steps'.
In 'The Mark of Innocence' I have tried to portray this evolution. From the very first steps to an evolution that increases in complexity. It increases in difficulty. In growing up, that innocence is lost. The simplicity is lost too. Utterly. We can only artificially reproduce it but by consciously reproducing it we can try to remember how it felt like, without actually ever being able of feeling it.
I have chosen the cover of the CD very carefully. The eyes are characteristic of the moment where one realises that there is a step, a transition from innocence and simplicity to complexity and evolution. An obscure moment of realisation that something is coming, without actually being able to realise what that something is. And if I can have a closing line for the idea behind the CD it is this: 'This moment, the moment of transition from simplicity to complexity is the most troubling in one's life. The Mark of Innocence is therefore, deep down, the mark of simplicity'. The association behind the first piece of the album and the last should be thought out carefully and hopefully listened to even more carefully.
Amongst all the new compositions that this CD features, some may notice that 'Moonlight' and 'Abyss' have been re-recorded. I kept the original ideas while slightly changing the way of playing to match the new style of the album and modifying them just a little. Having listened myself to Moonlight and Abyss a tremendous amount of times, I have come to realise - as much as I love both - that they are both guilty of my own evolution. They start off suddenly. Abruptly. They do not live up to their own mark of innocence. Instead of modifying them I have decided to compose two preludes for them. Prelude 1 refers to Moonlight and Prelude 2 to Abyss. Both preludes are composed in the same scales as their respective pieces and are characterised by more simplicity.
Finally, I only have one wish and hope. Those that do listen to these pieces, to do so consciously. Give them the necessary silence that they require and try to incorporate. We are all so busy in everyday life and music has become white noise. The difference between hearing something and listening something is lost too. Most people only hear. As background music, on their way to work, on the undergound, in the car, everywhere. We are constantly being bombarded with music and hence we develop an anaesthesia to it by being constantly forced to hearing that we often lose the capacity to listen. Within these ideas, I find Daniel Barenboim as a consolation who analysed this difference extensively in his Reith Lectures on the Philosophy of Music.
I hope that you will therefore listen. And if you just happen to enjoy as well, even better.
This CD is dedicated to Anna, who has been my mark of innocence for many years.
All the best,
Dionisis
http://www.musicbydionisis.com
