Svyatoslav Lunyov — Para Pacem- Para Bellum
As the album opens with a radio quote from Robert Oppenheimer father of the aumtomic bomb, from just before the tragedy in Hiroshima- it’s clear this is not going to be all sunshine and flowers. This walks the sombre fields of mankind’s destruction, follows the plough of the four houseman and tips it’s hat at the funeral of humanity, yet this is not with out it’s own sad wonder and beauty- like a field of poppies spring up from carnage. Ukrainian Composer Svyatoslav Lunyov brings together a sombre, beautiful and apocalyptic mix of traditional classical structure and instrumentation (piano, church organ and strings) with electronic and sampled elements. Mixing of harmonic and disharmonic tones, beauty and elegance fighting with the doomy, somber and morose. Making compiling, varied and rich music that stragglers many musical idioms, but never results to clichés or easy options- yet never become too jagged or discordant for it’s own sake. Amazingly this is his first released work, though he has been composing since the early 1990’s
Para Pacem- Para Bellum is grand and ornate, sombre and melancholy meeting of organic and electronic, that never let’s either become too dominate above the other. A very sombrely rewarding work of composition and execution from a highly talented composer, who has the ability to utilize all manner of sonic tools to create atmospheric, emotion and powerful pieces of music.