Icarus_asylum, mixes organic electronic ambience immersion with jazz narratives in soundscapes built from guitar-driven themes enveloped by segments from old ceremonies, ritual dances and natural sounds. It was constructed over 7 years and the 5 pieces should be listened sequentially, as in the complete album.
Two concepts underline the music themes, also naming the album:
the longing for spiritual refuge in the asylum of sound during an age when many, most of us, are displaced from homes and roots; the sense of existential failure resembling the fall of Icarus - whilst nobody is taking any notice - like in this still relevant today Renaissance painting by Bruegel.
released February 14, 2020
John Mourjopoulos: Keyboards, sampling, processing
Andreas Georgiou: Electric guitar, AG electric fretless guitar, 12-string & 8-string acoustic guitars
Guests:
Vasilis Stefanopoulos, bass, (Tracks 3, 4, 5)
Stephan Müller-Klieser, snare drums (Track 4)
Sarah De Wilde, tuba (Track 5)
Konstantina Mantzari, vocals (Track 5)
Markos Pavlou, bagpipes (Tracks 2, 5)
Vangelio Kintsari, hand drum (Track 5)
Production, recording, mastering by J. Mourjopoulos
Additional recording by Gavriil Kamaris (Tracks 4,5)
Recorded from 4/6/2012 until 4/10/2018
All compositions by J. Mourjopoulos
Track 3 based on improvisation by J. Mourjopoulos and A. Georgiou
Track 4 based on the “waltz no 2” by D. Shostakovich
Track 2 recording of firewalking ritual by N-code,
n-code.gr
Track 3 after the painting “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus” by Pieter Bruegel (c1560)
“… a portrait of what it felt like to live at the turning point between the closed universe and the open-ended cosmos… an odd patchwork of scenes, moods and vantage points…”
Didier Maleuvre, THE HORIZON a history of our infinite longing, University of California Press, 2011.