SVETLANA MARINCHENKO TRIO - Letters To My Little Girl
Losen: LOS260-2
Svetlana Marinchenko: piano; Ofri Nehemya: drums; Peter Cudek: bass; Mattheus von Schlippe: effects; Enji Erkembayar: vocal; Fiona Grond: vocal
Recorded December 2019 by Florian Oesterreicher at Realistic Sound, Munich.
Given the heritage of the personnel on this recording, there is a sense of the music journeying from many countries to the recording (well, Russia, Israel, Slovakia, Mongolia, Switzerland). Given Marinchenko’s musical interests, ranging from hip-hop to jazz to Russian classical music, this journey could also be musical. But it is as a personal journey that the liner notes introduce the compositions here. As the title implies, the pieces reflect an attempt at digging into one’s own beliefs and desires and then bringing these into the open in ways that could be understood in all their complexity by a child. This feels like a near impossible ambition, but there is such a feeling of emotional depth and catharsis across the playing and singing on this set, that one feels as if it has been (very nearly) achieved. I say ‘very nearly’ for the simple reason that I’m still thinking that of the impossibility of the ambition, but this is not to decry the ways in which Marinchenko and her trio make this happen. In the liner notes, she says that “The album is a reflection of my inner personal development. Each composition is a story, a statement, a step. The album is dedicated to my inner child and it’s full of love, support and hope.”
The classical music, comes from Marinchenko’s time at the Mussorgsky College of Music in St. Petersburg, where she also studied jazz. The hip-hop is glimpsed in the drum riff that opens ‘Hide ‘n’ Seek’, track 2, or the spoken word ‘Lighthouse’, track 8, or (in a sense) to the ways in which the electronic effects gently bathe the pieces without being overly intrusive, but is also part of the ethos of a willingness to borrow from different genres and blend these into the authentic voice of the composer. Across the compositions, her piano playing completely captures the listener’s attention and I very much liked that ways in which bass and drums uncover not only the several rhythms in the tunes but almost the undulations in emotional response of the stories that each of the tunes conveys. The voice, on the title track, track 3 (sung by Grond) and ‘Threads’, track 4, and ‘Morning Alone’, track 7 (sung by Erkembayar), provides a wordless, emotional response to the melodies. This was particularly effective, not just because of the quality of the singers, but also because their flowing vocal patterns allowed the listening to imagine words or phrases that could bring the stories to a personal place for the listener. I think that it takes someone who is completely immersed in the meaning and experience of music to be able to place the listener into the emotional centre of her tunes in the way the Marinchenko does. That her trio and singers convey this so admirably is both testament to their talents and to the qualities of her compositions.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
Losen: LOS260-2
Svetlana Marinchenko: piano; Ofri Nehemya: drums; Peter Cudek: bass; Mattheus von Schlippe: effects; Enji Erkembayar: vocal; Fiona Grond: vocal
Recorded December 2019 by Florian Oesterreicher at Realistic Sound, Munich.
Given the heritage of the personnel on this recording, there is a sense of the music journeying from many countries to the recording (well, Russia, Israel, Slovakia, Mongolia, Switzerland). Given Marinchenko’s musical interests, ranging from hip-hop to jazz to Russian classical music, this journey could also be musical. But it is as a personal journey that the liner notes introduce the compositions here. As the title implies, the pieces reflect an attempt at digging into one’s own beliefs and desires and then bringing these into the open in ways that could be understood in all their complexity by a child. This feels like a near impossible ambition, but there is such a feeling of emotional depth and catharsis across the playing and singing on this set, that one feels as if it has been (very nearly) achieved. I say ‘very nearly’ for the simple reason that I’m still thinking that of the impossibility of the ambition, but this is not to decry the ways in which Marinchenko and her trio make this happen. In the liner notes, she says that “The album is a reflection of my inner personal development. Each composition is a story, a statement, a step. The album is dedicated to my inner child and it’s full of love, support and hope.”
The classical music, comes from Marinchenko’s time at the Mussorgsky College of Music in St. Petersburg, where she also studied jazz. The hip-hop is glimpsed in the drum riff that opens ‘Hide ‘n’ Seek’, track 2, or the spoken word ‘Lighthouse’, track 8, or (in a sense) to the ways in which the electronic effects gently bathe the pieces without being overly intrusive, but is also part of the ethos of a willingness to borrow from different genres and blend these into the authentic voice of the composer. Across the compositions, her piano playing completely captures the listener’s attention and I very much liked that ways in which bass and drums uncover not only the several rhythms in the tunes but almost the undulations in emotional response of the stories that each of the tunes conveys. The voice, on the title track, track 3 (sung by Grond) and ‘Threads’, track 4, and ‘Morning Alone’, track 7 (sung by Erkembayar), provides a wordless, emotional response to the melodies. This was particularly effective, not just because of the quality of the singers, but also because their flowing vocal patterns allowed the listening to imagine words or phrases that could bring the stories to a personal place for the listener. I think that it takes someone who is completely immersed in the meaning and experience of music to be able to place the listener into the emotional centre of her tunes in the way the Marinchenko does. That her trio and singers convey this so admirably is both testament to their talents and to the qualities of her compositions.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
