Snap Mathei Florea New Grounds

• 1Cottage05:45
• 2Fluidium06:37
• 3Interlude01:18
• 4Oddly Ordinay04:01
• 5Notched Trees07:50
• 6Yond06:10
• 7Metsateel07:17
• 8Snap07:24
• Total Runtime46:22

Info for Snap

The music on this debut by Estonian Mathei Florea immediately strikes the listener with its exuberant beauty. It creates its own narratives and images, is tangible in an intangible way and yet avoids all definitions.

Beauty is a rare thing, Ornette Coleman postulated, and he must have known this, as he was constantly in search of perfection. How right he was with this much-quoted statement may hardly matter in everyday life, but as soon as you hear an album like Mathei Florea's "Snap", this statement inevitably comes to mind. There is no universal definition of beauty, and yet the Estonian's music is instantly recognisable for its exuberant beauty. It is complex, massive and yet light, dense and at the same time permeable. It creates its own narratives and images, is tangible in an intangible way and yet avoids all definitions. All of this adds up to an originality and genuine uniqueness for which the word "beautiful" seems almost too banal, and yet it goes right to the heart of Florea's music.

Mathei Florea is a pianist and bandleader, but above all he is a composer, and a natural in this respect. He comes from a country for whose cultural identity music plays an enormously important role. The Estonian composer Arvo Pärt is one of the most renowned classical composers of our time, the Estonian school of conductors is world-famous and the pianist Kristjan Randalu now leads a whole squad of widely recognised jazz musicians from the small Baltic country. Mathei Florea has found his very own musical language, which is based on his experience of Estonian classical music in the field of jazz, but at the same time forges its own genuine path. As a composer and arranger, sound painter and storyteller, he presents himself with such passionate self-confidence that it is hard to believe how young he still is.

Florea's music triggers numerous emotional chains. This makes it all the more surprising that he himself is in no way guided by emotions when composing. On the contrary, his compositional process is characterised by impressive clarity, which ultimately translates adequately into the music. "Of course I can't switch off my moods when I'm composing or playing," says Florea very straightforwardly, "but whether I've had a good or bad day doesn't affect my music. It's just work. I booked a studio date about a year in advance, and then it was time to sit down at the piano, midi keyboard or computer and work. I have an incredible amount of voice messages on my phone that I use as inspiration. And if I feel like I need to try something out on the piano, then I do. Or I sit down at Pro Tools and try to create a musical vision. That has nothing to do with feelings. It's work." Florea often works on several compositions at the same time. If he gets stuck with one piece, he doesn't get stuck in the floodgates of his thoughts, but can continue with another melody.

"Snap" is an entrée at the very highest level. A piece of music that - just one My away from absolute perfection - opens up infinite associative spaces for the listener. Drawing on various traditions, Mathei Florea lays the foundation for a new vocabulary on "Snap", with which he sets off for unknown horizons and which bears his unmistakable signature for today and all time.

Mathei Florea

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