Originally from London, Nicholas Sillitoe now lives in Kristiansand in southern Norway, one of a clutch of artists from the part of the world that we have featured recently.
He was originally a boy soprano but has the sort of Bryn Terfel look now that goes naturally with ‘baritone’. However, you wouldn’t know from this track, ‘Majesty’, which is the second single from the album ‘Let the wall of sound come down’, which will be released later, and which is an instrumental piece, in line with his accomplishments as a film composer.
Yesterday we had another Norwegian, Terje Gravdal, ruminating on the world’s current problems, which he nailed, despite their complexity.
Nicholas comes at them from a different angle, arguing that “Post-classical music is the soundtrack to our troubled times.”
I suppose it might well be and I’m prompted to wonder who might compose the music to the film that has yet to be made about the Covid pandemic (I suppose the scriptwriter is still waiting for the ending) or the Ukraine War (ditto) or the Donald’s second term, which might match the 1812 Overture for its intensity.
In fact I did once hear a great piece of music from Marte Eberson, another Norwegian and again who featured here only this week, a ‘Korona Toccata’ that would have made a fabulous theme to a pandemic movie.
But I digress. This second single from Nicholas’ forthcoming album has been released as a spring appetiser if you like, with the promise of warmer days (but freezing bloody cold nights here in the UK). It features Dutch harp virtuoso Remy Van Kesteren.
So what is ‘post-classical’ music? Everything seems to be ‘post-‘ these days. It seems to be a catch-all for the alignment of atmospheric traditional classics with ambient digital effects, which can also be atmospheric of course. So we’ve already heard it in EDM/IDM; symphonic metal and opuses like those dreamt up by M83.
Nicholas follows a different course.
‘Majesty’ is about the quest to be present together, in the moment. Another of those carpe diem allusions that we have also heard plenty of recently, and from a variety of artists and countries.
More specifically, he says, “In these polarised times, we need to reconnect with silence and peace. I hope the music can create a space for calm, reflection and belonging “.
Forget those higher bills you will have to pay from this month on and how far your shares and pension values have fallen these last few days and just let it wash over you.
Think of Eno’s ‘Music for Airports’ and then extrapolate it into the cosmos as if you’re in a planetarium, each note a fiery, shimmering sun hanging in the firmament.
Tiny glittering spaceships like flies flitting between huge circular cities.
And the harp interlude (by Remy Van Kesteren) could be an interjection by a fleeting meteor shower.
It will be six minutes better spent than you will ever do with your doctor or shrink.
Majestic by name; majestic by nature.
I’m trying to get my ahead around the album title. It could be a Berlin Wall-like challenge to the Spector and Horn concept of the ‘wall of sound’ and a suggestion that neo classical creations like this can be more effective.
Or it could be something else entirely. We shall see.
Find him on:
Website: https://www.plusfourseven.com/nicholassillitoe
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sillitoe
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/plusfourseven/
