'The Soul of Things' is now available to stream on all major platforms.
Poetzsch's new release is a fusion of solo piano, harp, cello and electronics, and draws inspiration from the mundane. The album can itself be heard as an ode to the ordinary things, a particularly good fountain pen, an old radio receiver – that somehow, in their very familiarity, become extraordinary to us. “There are many inexplicable things in relation to these objects and their meaning for you. There is a certain magic about it,” says Poetzsch.
'The Soul of Things' is filled with expressiveness and vivacity. Its soulfulness is primarily given through Poetzsch’s deep familiarity with the piano, his medium of expression since he was a young boy.
Despite his musical maturing over the years he still favours composing on his childhood, GDR-era piano, over new fancy alternatives, “It's a pretty unstable piano, the tuner has to come very often. I could probably have bought a new one with the money, but because I played my first notes on it I have a very strong connection to it and that makes it very easy for me to be creative,” he explains.
This acquaintanceship and intimacy with the piano can be felt in the ease with which Poetzsch gives in to improvisation in his music. As a matter of fact, intimacy is noticeable in every piece of 'The Soul of Things', as if with every object, Poetzsch was having a conversation with an old friend, “I was particularly interested in the objects that you use regularly and that are part of everyday life. Items that you wouldn't give away. That you like to have around you, that you like to touch.”
Seiden, the focus track of the album, is a gloriously delicate piece. Littered with repeating ascending and descending phrases, Poetzsch offers the listeners a sonically soothing experience with its depth perception and multiple piano layers. Watch the official video for Seiden below.
It continues to build on pianist's discoveries with his previous solo album, 'Remember Tomorrow' – away from the world of classically harmonic language towards something more contemporary, more individual.
The tracks in the album stand as self-contained worlds with their own logic and language. Conceived as an album about subjects, it actually tells volumes about the relationships and stories behind, and usually hidden from, everyday life.
The artwork, an installation designed by the Lithuanian concept artist Jolita Vaitkute, tells the story of these mundane objects which become symbols and statues representing a world that is in fact invisible. Music becomes the means to stir up memories and fragments of remembrance, and 'The Soul of Things' is an attempt of making sense of it all, of bridging that gap between the physical and metaphysical worlds.
'The Soul of Things' is out now via Neue Meister.