There’s a current tendency among post-modern classical composers to paint their musical pictures, or compositions if you will, in darker overtones, but then, it just might be the mirror of the times we live in. Or, as a composer, you can devote a composition cycle to an inspirational friend and colleague who passed too early, as Canadian post-classical composer Matthew Patton, who operates under the moniker of Those Who Walk Away, does on his latest release, Afterlife Requiem.
Devoted to, as he points out, a friend and collaborator, late Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson, Patton uses an interesting concept – he combines drone, electroacoustic, and near-silences extracted from unfinished recordings on Jóhannsson’s hard drives, underpinning his composition for two string quintets – Ghost Orchestra (Reykjavík) and Possible Orchestra (Winnipeg).
Patton explains: “Everything I have ever written is a Requiem. Everything an ending. Death is smeared all over this music. My work is about disappearance—of the present, the past, of everything. Afterlife Requiem gets slower and slower over its duration, it is one huge ritardando, time is not just slowing down—it is disappearing. Without even thinking, two related tragedies occurred and came to the surface organically while I was writing, recording, and working: the death of my mother and the death of composer and friend Jóhann Jóhannsson.”
Yes, what we get is music that is dark and solemn, but at the same time it is music that moves the listener, as it is able to communicate the effect personal tragedies had on the composer, creating a cathartic experience.
