Daniel Lopatin, aka. Oneohtrix Point Never, photo. Sacrum Profanum
Lopatin first presented his reinterpretation of the Polish composer’s work at the Sacrum Profanum Festival in Krakow in 2013. In the Polish Icons section, contemporary electronic music producers were confronted with two of Lutosławski’s songs: Funeral Music (1954-1958) and Preludes and fugue (1970-1972). Oneothrix Point Never took on the younger one.
Preludes and Fugue was written on 13 violin tracks. Lutosławski compiled baroque forms with their own style of composing.
We find here, in a most exciting form, all the virtues of its individual style and workshop: the complex construction, original design and sophisticated elegance of sound ideas (...), logical thought-form - both in the overall course of the work, as well as a detailed sound-shaping relationship (... ) extremely refined taste of the tone and finally - the original expression, sometimes very moving, though always used in a restrained and discreet form.'' – wrote Tadeusz A. Zielinski in the “Traffic Movement” (Ruch Muzyczny) after the premiere of Lutoslawski piece.
Lopatin called his work Music For Steamed Rocks. We do not know what the author had in mind, but this title certainly leaves little room for the listener’s imagination.
The song inspired by Lutosławski, as well as other ordered pieces, will be on the Comissions I album. Apart from the contracted pieces for Sacrum Profanum, music created for the Quadrator theatre production, will be featured, realised by Jonathan Santana and Xander Smith at the Saatchi & Saatchi showcase. A cover of the classic song I Only Have Eyes For You, known primarily from the performance by The Flamingos, is also featured, prepared for the installation SONG1 by Doug Aitken at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington.
The album will be released as a limited edition of 500 copies by WARP Publishing House. The premiere will take place on 19th April 2014, which is also Record Store Day – the international holiday to celebrate the culture of independently owned record stores.
Source: WARP, Lineout, Trzejkompozytorzy.pl, march 2014. translated: Katarzyna Maksimiuk, 10.03.2014