In October 2018, Alexandra Stréliski launched Inscape, a second album, like the signal of a lighthouse that allowed him to come out of the darkness of a depression experienced the previous year. Millions and millions of streams later, its successor, Neo-romance, reaches our ears after having been conceived under very different conditions, those of the bliss of love. Stréliski goes from shadow to light: will you hear it over these fourteen compositions which, aesthetically, stand out from those of the previous album by the injection of violins and a touch of electric piano?
“It depends on each artist, but, personally, being caught in the vicious circle of darkness and depression prevented me from functioning,” says Stréliski. I can create to understand and process suffering, but I can also create in comfort, and it’s been so much more bountiful to have space, time, and feel safe at home without having to sit down. the great existential question of love”, since he had already found everything.
His girlfriend teaches economics of the arts in Rotterdam, where the majority of the pieces of Neo-romance. “I didn’t know much about the Netherlands,” admits Alexandra. In fact, the city of Rotterdam reminds me a bit of how I grew up. In Montreal, I was studying at the French high school, with a lot of international students. It’s a bit like that in Rotterdam, we are a lot of expatriates. There are the Italian friends, the Belgians, the Irish, we form a small gang. What’s interesting with expats is that we’re all looking for a house, so I have fun making meals and making connections like that. But that’s when I have time. There, I don’t have many. »
new strings
Last week, Alexandra Stréliski was giving a recital in front of people from the music industry in Paris and was going to do the same in New York when she gave us a call from the airport lobby — remember that between Inscape And Neo-romance, she joined the XXIM Records branch of Sony Music. Between the two flights, she took the time to visit the set of Everybody talks about it and discussed with representatives of the Quebec print media. Add to all the hubbub surrounding the release of a new piano vintage her duties at the Lamajeure studio, of which she officially became co-owner two years ago.
Business is going well in Lamajeure, where she learned the job of composing music for the image, “but it’s still a big transition to embark on such a partnership”. The studio, she recalls, develops music for fiction, for immersive projects, “we specialize in what is a bit like the extension of music, including sound design. I work to build bridges with the contacts I make everywhere. I bet on development by trying to attract projects fun. Yes, I’m kind of the studio mascot, but for real, it’s my house. I represent it and I am very attached to the team”.
It was at Lamajeure that she recorded Neo-romance, the story of her young love story as much as of her quest for identity through her roots, family and musical, European, she repeats on all the stands. The pieces were mainly composed during the pandemic, but several passages from the album were also improvised in the studio, during recording.
“Yes, I think I’m a better musician and composer today, I’m evolving,” she says. Doing the stage has changed my approach to music, to the spontaneous, to improvisation. On the other hand, composing arrangements [pour violons, joués par le Karski Quartet, basé à Bruxelles] and putting them on the album indicates that this album is like me, in the sense that it’s not a commission for a film or a project. I hadn’t explored the idea of adding strings to my own compositions, I developed that on this project. »
Take time
The violins, in truth, do not transform the musical identity of Alexandra Stréliski. The admirers ofInscape will be on familiar ground on Neo-romance : we recognize this kind of melodic themes, simple but striking, which are the signature of the musician. At its best, it accentuates the dynamics between flowing passages and moments of passion, as on The First Kiss (the violins take up a lot of space here) or One Last Dance, which stand out; at its most banal, it quotes a little too much, unconsciously perhaps, its influences — Chopin again on family resemblanceor in the harmonic colors of Daydreams, which recall so easily theHail Mary by Schubert.
“I was less afraid to take on sadder pieces than on the previous album, says the composer. I feel like I take time better with more breathable pieces, taking long breaks—sometimes I find I rush things. I want to take my time. » Neo-romance is simple, revering those composers of the romantic era that she loves so much, but it works, even when Alexandra Stréliski takes up the tricks of her colleagues from the “modern classical” scene by emphasizing the relief sound of his favorite instrument — here, a good old upright piano and his brand new Bechstein grand piano. “I fell in love with the sound of this instrument. »
“I agree with you that the language of hammerhead imperfection has been overused [dans le monde du “modern classical”]. For the album, I was looking for a hybrid, offering a cleaner sound while retaining the intimacy of the upright piano that I like. Personally, I am already fed up with several aspects of what is also called neoclassical music. It’s an overused word, become a cliché of itself, especially because there is an abundance of proposals of the genre. That said, I have no choice: that’s what I do, that’s what I’ve always done, since I was six, and that won’t change. I don’t make this music to be in tune with the times or to follow a trend. I just express who I am, how I feel, hoping that my music touches people. And if one day I’m no longer in tune with the times, so be it. »