HENRIK MEIERKORD – PROSCENIUM
Henrik Meierkord is a productive artist: his name has popped up often recently. Only in December there was the release of Zeitreisen, and a few weeks later we are treated with another two releases worth listening to.
The first is Proscenium, released on the Whitelabrecs label. It’s Meierkord’s first full-length SOLO album for the label, following up Inseln – a collaboration with Logic Moon (see below for more of that) – and a Cello Improvisations EP. Apart from the releases on this label, Meierkord released quite a lot on various other labels (and self-released them if he could not find a label).
His cello is never far away and is often the composition’s foundation. But Meierkord embeds the instrument in dream-like orchestrations created with piano, double bass, violin, synths, and whatever else is needed. His music thus borders on neo-classical and atmospheric ambient.
Proscenium is the word for ‘the view the audience has when watching an Ancient Greek theatre performance, or indeed the location from which the actors carry out their performance’.
The track titles may suggest Meierkord had a specific play in mind, but he hadn’t: ‘it could in fact be numerous stories collected together as many overlapping emotions, played back all at once, as if recalling centuries of moments emitted from a theatre stage’.
LOGIC MOON & HENRIK MEIERKORD – EWIGER WALD
Ewiger Wald (Eternal Forest) is the second time Henrik Meierkord and Logic Moon (Tobias Lorsbach) worked together: they also released Inseln in 2022. This time, their work is released on the Dronarivm label – in another sort of collaboration with Fonodroom. (The latter is the (distribution) label of Artem O., or Artyom Kryptogem, who represents both labels after relocating from Russia to Amsterdam. Explains the link but is perhaps also a bit too much information 😉 )
Meierkord’s cello and violin and Lorsbach’s electronics are a perfect match, meandering between (or combining) ambient soundscapes and neo-classical music – ‘encapsulating a wide range of modern ambient music’. A wide range in a short time, unfortunately: the EP presents no more than 20 minutes of music in 5 tracks on a 3″ CDr. Which leaves us longing for more (fortunately there’s also Meierkord‘s solo release mentioned above).
The short playing time is compensated with the package: Ewiger Wald is released in a 10x10cm box, which includes 3 grams of ‘Taiga’ herbal tea (also known as ‘Siberian Ginseng’) and two paper tea sachets.
Don’t get too excited, please: the limited edition (of 50) immediately sold out before the release date.
We can only be happy that the music still remains available.