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Composer Andrey Klimkovsky. BLOG

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Andrey Klimkovsky is a Russian composer working in the electronic music space. Musical images he created — «Music of Celestial Spheres», «Starry Sky», «ALEALA» and «DreamOcean» have become classics of the genre, gaining fame both in Russia and abroad. The musician regularly gives spectacular live concerts and collaborates with many other representatives of the Russian electronic scene, leads a popular community about synthesizers and workstations, participates in astronomical expeditions and practices a healthy lifestyle.

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Showing posts with label youtube. Show all posts
Showing posts with label youtube. Show all posts

Thursday, February 1, 2024

Μουσική των Ουράνιων Σφαιρών — μέρος 1 — από το σούρουπο ως την αυγή

Μουσική των Ουράνιων Σφαιρών — μέρος 1 — από το σούρουπο ως την αυγή

Friends, some of you know, and for some this will be news, but such a phenomenon as “Music of the Spheres” or “Music of the Celestial Spheres” came to us from ancient Greece (as well as many other things). Cosmos is a Greek word, and it means — neither more nor less — "Order". Music and Harmony are also Greek concepts. The desire of Greek philosophers to understand the structure of the World in which we live combined Music and the order of movement of the heavenly bodies in such a way that each planet or star had its own specific tonality or note, and the sound of these notes created Harmony. These were absolutely no joke researches — relying on them, the smartest people of that era found for themselves and other people the meaning of our lives (what do we live for?) and the rules, following which you can live your life happily, without suffering, because the laws of harmony are the same in Heaven and on Earth. It’s just that for now there is less Harmony on Earth, and more disharmony — disorderly, incoherent, out of step with the sound of each of us. But the Music of the Spheres can change this — at least, Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle and many other thinkers of ancient Greece thought so. Just as a tuner compares the sound of a string and the tuning fork by which he tunes it, so people had to compare their deeds and actions with how harmonious they are with what the Cosmos sounds around us.

More than two thousand years have passed since then, but these ideas are still relevant. And a person finds happiness only when he is in harmonious resonance with the World around him. Well, if for some reason this resonance is suddenly upset, the Music of the Spheres still helps to return it.

When I recorded my first music album (in 1997) I didn't know any of this. But I intuitively searched for harmony and resonance of sound with the vibrations of the World, with the barely audible singing of the stars. When the record was ready, I finally thought about what to call it. At some point, a hint seemed to flash in my mind — “Call it “Music of the Celestial Spheres”.” And I gave it exactly that name, although at the time I had no real idea what I was dealing with.

Over the years, I then found amazing examples of other musicians and scientists going through a similar path. Johannes Kepler devoted many years of his life to attempts to create the “Music of the Spheres” based on mathematics and celestial mechanics. But in my search there was more of a desire not to calculate cosmic melodies, but to feel them with my heart, if such a thing is at all possible. It seems to me that I managed to feel something. In any case, many of my listeners who left reviews for that very first album uploaded to Youtube think the same.

Most of the time, this album was published in Russian and English versions. A couple of years ago I published an album with translations into Spanish and Chinese. And only recently I remembered that the idea of “Music of the Spheres” is of Greek origin, and that I simply must publish the Greek version of the album “Music of the Celestial Spheres”. My colleague, artist and singer Nataliya Victoria, who has lived in Athens for many years, helped me with this. And now the first album of the “Music of the Celestial Spheres” cycle has been uploaded to Youtube in Greek design — with Greek melodic names and descriptions in this beautiful language.

We also translated the design of the booklet for the CD and created a colorful digital ArtBook — all this is included with the digital version of the album. Those interested can receive it.

I hope this work will continue, and the next parts of the “Music of the Celestial Spheres” series will also be republished in the language of Pythagoras, Plato and Aristotle.

Happy listening, Friends!


Sunday, January 7, 2024

Amber 2024 I — Andrey Klimkovsky & James Hill

A completely unexpected and amazing version of Amber from James Hill. He, being a modest man, indicates my authorship here, and to himself he only mentions playing the trumpet. But he breathed more Life and Love into this work than I ever could. Plus, he also made this wonderful video.

Thank you very much, my Friend!

Thursday, August 31, 2023

Last August Night

The final composition from the «Star triangle» album

By the way, just today and right now - on the night of August 30-31, is the “Last Night of August”. This year it coincided with the supermoon ("Blue Moon", as it is sometimes called - when two supermoons in a row) and on this night we had a conjunction of Saturn with the Moon - right during its opposition. Amazing picture...

By the way, year after year I have always intended to make a video for this tune and publish it on the last night of August. Finally it happened. True, in the video the night is completely moonless, but that's what makes it good - the last August night (in the classical sense of this metaphor), that nothing prevents the shining of stars in the black August sky. Supermoons come and go, but the image of the dark starry sky of August remains.

Monday, August 14, 2023

Song of the setting sun (version 2023 — with James Hill, trumpeter)

«Song of the setting sun» is an updated version, albeit based entirely on the one piece from maxi-single of 2005 year.

I and James Hill — American jazz trumpeter — spent some time choosing a piece for our next recording together. It must be said that electronic music is specific, and classical jazz instrumentation cannot be easily used everywhere. But the «Song of the Setting Sun», it would seem, itself asked for the brass section - its leading timbre was an electronic imitation of brass, and the trumpet is very much in tune with brass. In addition, this work is marine, and the trumpet is probably the most marine instrument in terms of its energy.

James recorded the trumpet part very quickly and accurately in his TCAB Studio, and sent me the record. I, as usual, could not refuse to make some adjustments to the overall mix, and suddenly realized that the work needed to be completely remixed — it's 2023, and you can't leave the sound of 20 years ago.

I disassembled the composition into parts, digitized them again, even added another new one part to them, and connected everything in a way that I could not do before. And besides, a completely new Sea now sounds here.

You can compare versions. In the Youtube channel of James Hill sounds the very first — traditional — version of the «Song of the Setting Sun»:

And there is a completely different video.

There is a new version of the work on my channel, and a slightly different sounding trumpet. And the video was created with the participation of the BlueWillow neural network.

Friends, you can subscribe to James Hill's Youtube channel:

There is exceptionally beautiful music, and excellent videos.

And subscribe to my channel too, if someone has not already done so.

Saturday, July 29, 2023

Blue Moon Night. Video version

«Blue Moon Night» is a track from the album «Music of the Celestial Spheres — part 2 — Birth, Life and Death». The album is completely dedicated to the Moon, or to be more precise, to the cycle of lunar phases, which is presented in the album in full — from new moon to new moon.

This 3-minute episode corresponds approximately to the 12th lunar day... or is it more correct to say — to the 12th lunar night?

This is closer to the truth, because the melody has a "nightly" name.

When I gave the play a name, I proceeded from my own associations that had developed over hundreds of observational nights. Despite the fact that the Moon in our minds is strongly associated with yellowish hues (which is quite reasonable), near the full moon, the Moon can cause the illusion of a blue glow. this is especially noticeable in cities where street lighting is most often orange — much yellower than the Moon. And in contrast to this difference, the Moon itself, and everything that it illuminates in the sky, begins to appear blue to our eyes. There was even such a term "Blue Moon". But when this music was created, it was practically not used. Now (perhaps) I would call the work differently — «Night of the Blue Moon». But it's too late to change the name of this melody.

Happy viewing and listening!

Tuesday, July 25, 2023

«Phantom galaxy» on Youtube

Friends, the album of the «NGC» project — «Phantom galaxy» — is entirely uploaded on YouTube. And this time it's not just a picture with music — it's a dynamic image born from the cover design that lives and breathes, and you can look at it as long as this music sounds.

Welcome to an intergalactic journey to the «Phantom galaxy» NGC 628 in the Pisces constellation:

Monday, October 10, 2022

Concert «Music of Celestial Spheres in Moscow Planetarium» • Composer Andrey Klimkovsky and Friends • Full updated video

10 years ago, this wonderful concert took place, and soon a DVD disc with its full recording was released:

«Music of Celestial Spheres in Moscow Planetarium»


Composer Andrey Klimkovsky and Friends

There were only three friends: Igor Kolesnikov, Olya Zemlyanika and your obedient servant.

But in the concert itself, and around it, a lot of people took part. I can’t remember everyone now, and I didn’t even know someone’s names then. The Moscow Planetarium is a very large organization, and holding concerts under its dome is a very massive event, both in terms of the number of spectators and the number of staff involved.

I'm still trying to remember...

Thursday, October 6, 2022

«I was born not on the Earth» album on Youtube


One of the key albums in my creation

But it all started with a song. It was written by my old friend, with whom we studied at the Moscow Planetarium. The song was dramatic in meaning, if did not say tragic. In eight verses, it was told how the hero of the story was thrown down here — on Earth — still he was very young, and all his life he cannot find a common language with the strange inhabitants of this planet — not the kindest creatures, to put it bluntly.

But then I took it as proof of the theory of the transmigration of Souls. Who knows, maybe the soul of the author of the song in the previous incarnation did not live here, and remembers other feelings and relationships between intelligent beings... Or maybe I am the same, since it hooked me so much...

Back in 1985, I tried to interpret the music of that song in my own way, written by the author with a guitar. But in the end, I wrote a lot of melodies that formed around the song into something larger in form — into a whole symphony... or just an album of instrumental music. But then I was 16 years old, and I didn’t record any albums then.

It's been a long ago. Some melodies were lost, forgotten. And the attitude to the plot of the song was greatly transformed. I began to consider it as evidence of spiritual growth.

The analogy is simple: children, while they are small, fit their own house and a playground nearby, but they don’t go to the playground near another house — it’s a stranger. And other children are often chased away with their own.

As a person grows up, he begins to associate himself with his city, country, planet ... and then the planet becomes small for him. Not all people, of course, from the first time live to such a level of self-acceptance as part of the Universe. But at some point, the question arises by itself: “Where did my Soul come from? — Did It really arise right here? And if I am the whole Universe, then my Soul has always been the whole Universe and manifested itself here only in order to put a point to growth trajectory — one of the points. And how many such points have already been? How many more will be?“

In the late 90s, this album reappeared in my musical plans. I expected to record it by 1999 — even the covers were printed. But then the recording did not take place. However, at least I rethought the musical basis again — I managed to remember something (after almost 15 years), and write something again. But I managed to approach the recording of the album «I was born not on the Earth» only in the mid of 00s. In the summer of 2007 the first half was completed and in August 2008 the album was finally released.

The original song sounds in the album in an instrumental form, of course, there are no chants here. But the irony is that later one of the melodies of the album «I Was Born not on the Earth» was used by the composer Victor Argonov for his electronic opera, and there it sounds like the main theme of the real song itself. And in general, the electronic opera «We, XXII century» can be considered as a logical continuation of the album «I was born not on the Earth». This is such an amazing thread.

Now the album «I was born not on the Earth» is fully uploaded on Youtube — you can listen and ask questions.

Wednesday, October 5, 2022

«Music of Celestial Spheres in the Moscow Planetarium» live album

You can’t just talk about concerts at the Optical Theatre, the Museum of Astronautics, the Museum of the History of the Earth, but not talk about concerts at the Moscow Planetarium. There were three of them — in 2012-2013. But only one was recorded qualitatively — the middle one.

Probably, there is no need now to talk about how exciting the light show was on the largest dome-screen in Europe (the dome of the Moscow Planetarium is really the largest in Europe). But I consider it necessary to note the uniqueness of the musical component of that concert — each composition sounded in a completely unexpected playing, and new versions were prepared for some melodies. This became possible thanks to the participation in the concert of my colleague — musician and composer — Igor Kolesnikov, and an absolutely inimitable vocalist — Olga Zemlyanika. And although Olga participated in only two numbers, this concert is worth listening to only for her participation.

In 2013, the concert was released on CD, and now it has appeared on Youtube — you can listen (or you can watch — there is an indication of the DVD version in the description).

Thursday, November 18, 2021

Live «Music of Celestial Spheres. Leap into the future». Alternative video-version. Online friendly viewing November 19, 2021 19:00 London time

Live «Music of Celestial Spheres. Leap into the future». Composer Andrey Klimkovsky. Alternative video-version. Online friendly viewing November 19, 2021 19:00 London time

Friends, many of you have already heard and even someone bought my new live album «Music of Celestial Spheres. Leap into the future». Do you want to watch the full video?

The recording is scheduled to air 19 November 2021 — 19:00 (London time) on the Youtube channel of NEANE Records (the label on which the album was released). You just need to go to the channel and subscribe:

Closer to the start of the broadcast, I will indicate here in the comments (and maybe — in a separate publication) a direct link to the video.