The Scriabin Code - Sehen : Hören (2015) [Hi-Res]

At the centennial of his death, many artistic projects celebrate the work of Russian composer AS. But few are as daring and innovative as „THE SCRIABIN CODE“, conceived by the German clarinettist and composer Martin Albrecht. Martin Albrecht "SCRIABIN CODE" presents the original piano pieces of the visionary composer in highly inspired and powerful versions by classical pianist Asli Kilic, acclaimed for her recent recordings of Janacek on Rodenstein Records. These originals are contrasted with reinventions arranged and performed by Albrecht and an outstanding ensemble of jazz musicians, taking Scriabin’s work into completely new and unexpected realms. Live, these performances are transformed by light and visuals by Lehel Lajos - a holistic piece of art that synesthete Skrjabin would have liked.

Martin Albrecht "SCRIABIN CODE" turned out to be a challenging, but ultimately very successful project, praised by American jazz pianist and composer Richie Beirach: „The concept of this project makes it a dramatic and exciting experience with Asli playing the originals and the SCRIABIN CODE improvising. That‘s jazz right there. It‘s creative and forward-looking. “

A project opening new horizon for classical as well as jazz listeners, showing Scriabins’s music in a whole new light.

Now, around the 100th anniversary of his death, Alexander Scriabin (1872- 1915) is one of the few composers who is truly a mystic in the sense that his sounds are just partly music. He developed a keen interest in colors of sound, in philosophy and religion, the older he got, the more he became himself and these other interests and his spiritual nature started to radically influence his music.

Scriabin is one of the few composers who are developmental artists, in other words they start at one point and develop radically throughout their lives, like Mozart, Beethoven, Monet or Picasso.

The SCRIABIN CODE itself is made up of a few different things. Of uttermost importance is the complete knowledge of the past. Scriabin is already standing on the shoulders of other great composers in terms of vocabulary, taste, beautiful melodic lines, and his intense love for Chopin.

With all those influences, he is not just a quietly tinkling, genius composer. His writing is very strong, his rhythms are interesting and go much over the bar. His capability of writing stunningly beautiful, long melodic lines, often with a soft lyrical dissonance, is very unusual. His ability to harmonize and reharmonize his simple motives is a fantastic template for future chamber music. He has created a great musical formula: a simple melodic idea, a sophisticated reharmonization avoiding repetition. Scriabin had one foot in the old world and one in the new. He is not a thrown back composer like Mahler or Rachmaninov.

Many of Scriabin's critics say, The SCRIABIN CODE is many interesting codes, not just one. This album is one of the really important examples for the transformation of contemporary music into a great vehicle for modern group jazz improvisation.

Martin Albrecht, clarinet, bass clarinet
Dirik Schilgen, drums
Daniel Prandl, pinao
Katharina Gross, bass
Lehel Lajos, visuals
Asli Kilic, piano

Tracklist:
01. The Scriabin Code - Prelude op.11/18 (0:55)
02. The Scriabin Code - Hektik (4:31)
03. The Scriabin Code - Never Ending Story (6:26)
04. The Scriabin Code - Prelude op. 74/2 (1:48)
05. The Scriabin Code - Rausch (5:03)
06. The Scriabin Code - Vers la flamme op.74/2 (7:14)
07. The Scriabin Code - Hetzjagd (3:04)
08. The Scriabin Code - Prelude op.11/6 (0:52)
09. The Scriabin Code - Prelude op. 74/4 (2:01)
10. The Scriabin Code - Nebel (7:30)
11. The Scriabin Code - Schizophrenie (0:55)
12. The Scriabin Code - Prelude op.11/24 (0:45)
13. The Scriabin Code - Vers dun cherchant (2:09)
14. The Scriabin Code - Prelude op.11/2 (4:14)
15. The Scriabin Code - op. 11/5 (2:13)
16. The Scriabin Code - Sehen Durch Hören (7:55)