Aug 26th 2016

Interview with Serge Bulat: Grappling with the concept of time

by Michael Johnson

Michael Johnson is a music critic with particular interest in piano. 

Johnson worked as a reporter and editor in New York, Moscow, Paris and London over his journalism career. He covered European technology for Business Week for five years, and served nine years as chief editor of International Management magazine and was chief editor of the French technology weekly 01 Informatique. He also spent four years as Moscow correspondent of The Associated Press. He is the author of five books.

Michael Johnson is based in Bordeaux. Besides English and French he is also fluent in Russian.

You can order Michael Johnson's most recent book, a bilingual book, French and English, with drawings by Johnson:

“Portraitures and caricatures:  Conductors, Pianist, Composers”

 here.

A new sound in the realm of electronic music is evolving from the mind of a transplanted Moldavan avant-garde composer now struggling to make his way in New York. He has based his recent work on “lounge electronica” but, he adds, “with a classical twist”.

Serge Bulant, face painted

Serge Bulat, 30, a music-school product from post-Soviet Moldava, dropped his radio career and fled his homeland to seek artistic freedom in New York. “I wanted to be fully involved and unrestricted in what I'm trying to create,” he said in an extended series of email exchanges with me from his New York base.

Moldova, independent since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, borders on Ukraine and Romania and has the distinction of being Europe’s poorest country.

His new album, “Queuelbum: A Music Guide to Time Travel” is now making its way among his fans on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify and other media. A CD version is in preparation and a video component is in the works. The title comes from his idea of living in a sort of constant queue. He cites among his influences Prokofiev and Stravinsky.

Bulat acknowledges feeling “very weird” when listening to one of the tracks, “Isolationist”. I found the entire album intriguing and stimulating, sometimes jolting, but not particularly weird – at least not compared to other experimental compositions out there.

Philip Glass, one of Bulat’s inspirations, once said music can only work if the listener doesn’t know what’s coming next. Bulat seems to have taken that advice to heart.

This three-pronged project includes his other primary video works: “Walker” and “Third World River”, the latter of which “expresses the concept in its full,” Bulat tells me. “Two entities communicate with each other, creating a special space. Eventually this contact becomes a piece of music/art.” Walker has an eerie message:


His video collaborator and sometime director is a Russian video artist Michael Rfdshir (a professional pseudonym that defies pronunciation in any language).

Bulat considers Queuelbum to be a personal introduction, “a sort of a throwback to the time when I existed in life’s waiting room, anticipating the future. Time is also transformation, so this is where the contrast and polarities appear.” 

He has a philosophical bent that he combines with his music. I told him he sounds a lot like Dostoevsky. He did not disagree. Life, he believes, “is a waiting line, where past and present haven’t happened yet, a sort of a limbo ... where nothing exists yet, or everything exists already, but you can still chose where to go and what chance to take”.

He explains his thinking in this clip:


Bulat calls Queuelbum the beginning of his musical journey. His thinking emerges clearly in our email exchanges below.

Interview, full text:

Q. Where does your expertise in electronic music come from?

A. Back in Moldova, where I was born and raised, I worked in music and radio after I finished my piano studies. In my radio days I produced and hosted programs on arts and culture. I promoted the music unknown to us, from African to Bulgarian voices, all grounded in lounge electronica.

Q. What led you to leave Moldova and move to the West?

A. Well, Moldova has a decent cultural life, but artists have to struggle for progress and appreciation. I felt that if I wanted to be fully involved and unrestricted in what I'm trying to create, I needed to leave. This is how New York came in the picture. It’s a Mecca for artists.


 Q. This new album seems to be a bit of a random compilation, right?

A. No quite. Queuelbum turned out to be this adventure of time and space, where I tried to connect my past and future via music. I have a wide spectrum of memories, from depression in my teens to grief over friends I lost as I got older, to happy moments, like playing your first tune and seeing Caribbean for the first time. I wanted to bring this together in melodies and rhythms. I tried to wake up that explorer in me. So, when you hear the tracks, you instantly differentiate what comes from one period or another. 

Q. Is this some kind of time-travel in your head?


A. Yes, the idea comes from this weird concept of mine -- that you can communicate with yourself from the past to the future via music. Music creates memories but also lets you experience them again.

Q. How satisfied are you that a completely new sound emerges in the album?

A.It’s very hard to critique something you spent almost two years on, closed up in a home studio with no music influences whatsoever. That was my own choice – but I found the sound that makes the concept work, and it is new.

Q. Can you at least cite some influences in your thinking?

A. Influences are wide ranging. I'm book-nerdy, and love anything by Hesse, Pirandello, Gogol, Sartre, Borges, Murakami and Bulgakov. When was little I was fascinated by Belyaev – the Soviet sci-fi guru -- and later by the Bhagavad Gita. 

Q. And music influences?


A. Classical and folk, mostly. I was raised listening to Moldavan folklore; I pretty much love anything Balcanic. This is why Goran Bregovic will be always in my heart. My hometown is the biggest gypsy town in Europe. But my true love is classical -- at this point, Puccini, Prokofiev, Stravinsky and Wagner. Modern influences vary, from UK triphop like Morcheeba, Massive Attack, Tricky and Zero 7 to American Thievery Corporation and Philip Glass. I’m also re-listening to a lot Nitin Sahney, Anoushka Shankar lately. Bjork’s “Vulnicura” is incredible. 

Q. You describe yourself as an artist with strong philosophical interests. You sound somewhat Dostoevskian.

A. Well, in philosophical sense, I feel like Time is a spectacular antihero. If man is the true hero then time is this dark master, a powerful opponent who tends to win the battle.


Q. Why is Time so important to you? We all have to live with it, especially in our modern era.

A. I guess when you experience so much as I have, from sudden happiness to melancholy and sadness, time traveling is inevitable. You look for some form of escape. I have such strange and dark memories of my teens and childhood; from being isolated from the world and avoiding the sad reality of living in a ruined, post-Soviet society and the uncertainty of everyone’s future. I couldn’t wait to escape and live a better life, make music, but reality reflected hate, poverty and violence. So, isolation was that little spaceship that took me back and forth, past to future, to find those great times when I could live happily and do what I want.

Q. There seems to be poignancy in your music. Where does that come from, I wonder?

A. Yes, there is a longing for the moments in life that you can never relive. There is the first love, the wonder of a live performance, an epic road trip, the lost friendship, the last hug et cetera. All these moments have colors, tones, charged with energy, and ultimately, vibrations and sounds. If you zoom out, go back to the beginning of everything, then witness all stages of evolution, you realize that all the moments coexist –they keep happening over and over again. You get a feeling that Time is a strange force that makes no sense while still being the only logical thing when measuring life itself.

Q. What does this have to do with your new album ?

A. Queuelbum is the philosophical battle between the past and future. I am trying to create the meaning of all things, with Time as the only measure that makes sense in this world. Aside from benefits of living in the “now”, you develop a new understanding that nothing is “now” anymore; the “now” is the illusion that lies in fundamental understanding of what time is. Everything you say or do belongs to those polarities. We live in the world of memories of the past and future. And this is what this project is to me – this unit of memories, one contrasting with the other… but at the same time being whole and belonging to the same existence.

Q. You seem to have assembled a large band of collaborators.

A. No, everything you hear on Queuelbum is written, produced and performed by myself. I play piano and synthesizers. Most of the time I develop the melodies while playing piano. Composition makes more sense when I play it on the keys.

Q. What about your musicians?

A. The whole album is electronic, and whatever you hear is 100 percent digital. I wanted to produce a project with one tool and by one person only. The idea was to create a massive sound, structured and layered album, with pianos, organs, Tibetan bells, harps, woodwinds, percussion, and also make it sound like it was anchored in some other time -- 20 years ago or 20 from now in the future.

Q. You must have cut-and-pasted samples?

A. No, I didn’t use any samples whatsoever and tried to avoid the involvement of computers, so pretty much all production was done on my keyboard workstation. That makes up 75 percent of the record, and 25 percent is in the mixing. But I guess that’s why Queuelbum sounds the way it does. I squeezed everything I could out of my gear, even mixed inside the workstation.

Q. Your origins are East European. How international was this work?

It’s all done in my New York home although I did some experimentation with in a big Steinhardt studio with real instruments: cellos, oboe, flutes and piano, but I re-recorded everything myself on my synthesizer, as I didn’t see the point in leaving one track on the album grotesquely sounding live and real.

Q. Where could a curious listener find the full album?

A. As of today the record is everywhere from iTunes to Google Play and Spotify. In today's digital world, immediacy is the currency, so you can’t really have endless transitions/cross-faded tracks and make it organically fit in someone’s digi library. Queuelbum will be available in CD format very soon. I’m putting the physical version together now.

Q. Help me place this music among the electronic subgenres. You mentioned grounding in lounge-electronica. Is this album electro-grime, dark ambient, tech-trance?

 A. I suppose genres have to be defined by other people. To me, it’s a meditation of neo-classical, ambient, but boosted with world beat and techno. I like calling it “electronic music with a classical twist”, but even then, I’m putting limitations on my own sound. Some songs are super-comprehensive and some are very avant-garde. But there is no formula; I like to be open in terms of sound.

Q. What tracks should a listener look out for?

A. “Queue Scope” is the big track -- pretty much the album’s signature track. “Isolationist” is one of my favorites -- very dominant and impulsive. It was initially a short interlude I planned for Queuelbum, but then it developed into a dark blockbuster. I still feel very weird while listening to this.

END

 


This article is brought to you by the author who owns the copyright to the text.

Should you want to support the author’s creative work you can use the PayPal “Donate” button below.

Your donation is a transaction between you and the author. The proceeds go directly to the author’s PayPal account in full less PayPal’s commission.

Facts & Arts neither receives information about you, nor of your donation, nor does Facts & Arts receive a commission.

Facts & Arts does not pay the author, nor takes paid by the author, for the posting of the author's material on Facts & Arts. Facts & Arts finances its operations by selling advertising space.

 

 

Browse articles by author

More Music Reviews

Oct 7th 2024
EXTRACT: "Oppens stands apart from today’s keyboard virtuosos by her four decades of discovering and commissioning new works. These contributions to the repertory ensure her a permanent place in pantheon of modern music. But she is also recognized as a powerful performer who tackles the thorniest of new pieces. As she said in our interview, she remembers hearing the difficult works of Julian Hemphill for the first time and thinking 'This is for me!'  Composers who have been commissioned by her or who have written works for her include such leading lights as Frederic Rzewski, William Bolcom, Elliott Carter, John Corigliano, John Harbison, Julius Hemphill, Peter Lieberson, Conlon Nancarrow, Tobias Picker, Christian Wolff  and Charles Wuorinen.”
Jul 5th 2024
EXTRACTS: "The Conservative Party, which was finally pronounced dead from multiple unnatural causes on July 5 2024, was born in 1832." ---- " Strange as it might now appear, the party was once very popular and respected, even by its opponents. Educated at Eton and Oxford, it established a reputation for governing competence which allowed it to bounce back from serious setbacks, notably the landslide Labour victory of 1945." ---- "The end of the cold war debunked the notion that the Conservatives had restored Britain’s former global status. Unwilling to acknowledge their country’s subservience to the United States, the party’s dominant nationalist faction could now only rage against reality by identifying the European Union, and post-war immigration, as the twin culprits for the depletion of British political influence and cultural uniformity." ---- "The Conservative party has presented a sorry spectacle to sympathetic observers in its undignified post-Brexit dying days. It became prone to hallucinations, first believing that Boris Johnson could be a successful prime minister then replacing him with Liz Truss."
Jun 17th 2024
EXTRACT: "Question: Isn’t piano study a big problem in the USA, with all the electronic games and distractions from music lessons? ---- Answer: The problem is also in Europe. We have lost a lot of quality, in terms of knowledge behind the music. The schools do not make the transmission from the composers to us. We owe that to the composers. And it’s very sad because now we focus on goals and competition, and competition does not go well with art.
Jun 9th 2024
EXTRACT: "Question: Isn’t it true, as the musicologist Kyle Gann says, that one cannot judge immediately what’s good or bad in contemporary music? We must wait 20 years. Answer: Yes, look at Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring”. It caused a scandal. It was booed and rejected by everyone. Now it’s standard in the concert hall. In jazz, I think it’s not 20 years, but more like 50 years before we know what has worked or not. One has to step back and reflect on whether we have brought something new."
Mar 9th 2024
EXTRACT: "In a way, every experience you have, every book you read, every movie you watch, every place you visit, every encounter you have, every moment you spend with friends or family, they leave a mark on you and direct you indirectly and therefore leave their mark on your playing.", says Boris Giltburg in Michael Johnson's and Frances Wilson's new book 'Lifting the Lid: Interviews with Concert Pianists', now available on Amazon.
Feb 27th 2024
EXTRACT: "Question: Some pianophiles say the CD could be useful for meditation, therapy or even healing. ---- Answer: Indeed, that is the kind of feedback I am getting. But this music doesn’t belong to me any more, therefore I cannot label it with any purpose. It has taken on a life of its own. I can’t say how it affects the life of other people. Will it be therapeutic or will it have another effect? Time will tell."
Dec 4th 2023
EXTRACT: "Seated in a quiet corner of a Bordeaux hotel last week, we had an interview – more a casual chat – about her life, her Soviet Russian origins, her career, her future."
Nov 27th 2023
EXTRACT: "Schiff creates an atmosphere that we 'seniors' remember from the old days. No clowning, no bouncing on the bench, no outlandish clothing. He dresses in a black smock, black trousers, black shoes, topped off with a mane of pure white hair. His manners, his grateful bowing, are très Old Europe. ---- Schiff keeps control of his two hours onstage. He believes that dignity goes with the great music on the program and he scarcely moves as he plays."
Nov 19th 2023
EXTRACT: "  Boston-based guitarist, band leader and composer Phil Sargent is not about churning out endless CDs. In fact his ten-year recording gap, just ended, had his fans wondering where he was. But in New York and Boston, he tells me, he has never stopped working with other groups while composing and actively teaching young and mature talent. Although not always visible, he seems to be a confirmed workaholic, even practicing five hours a day. Yes, virtuosos also need to practice. ---- And now he is back. His new CD, 'Sons'....."
Nov 19th 2023
EXTRACT: "There is a renewed fascination with the memory-stimulating and healing powers of music. This resurgence can primarily be attributed to recent breakthroughs in neuroscientific research, which have substantiated music’s therapeutic properties such as emotional regulation and brain re-engagement. This has led to a growing integration of music therapy with conventional mental health treatments."
Sep 28th 2023
EXTRACT: "British psychotherapist, Michael Lawson, who has worked with several prodigies and former prodigies, calculates there may be as many as 200,000 piano prodigies active in the world today. “In a sense, they are not that rare,” he says in our interview below. Lawson is author of International Acclaim: The Steinfeld Legacy a new novel of the great pianists of the 19th and early 20th centuries in which the prodigy phenomenon is described in some detail."
Sep 17th 2023
EXTRACT: "Like so many stories about relationships told over an extended time, Past Lives uncovers the twists and turns, the “what ifs” and the manifold choices that lead to two people wondering whether they were meant to be together."
Sep 12th 2023
EXTRACT: " OrpheusPDX, a new company founded by Christopher Mattaliano in Portland, Oregon, concluded its second season with a brilliant and thought-provoking production of Nico Muhly’s “Dark Sisters,” at Lincoln Hall (August 24), exploring and exposing relationships in a polygamous sect and the courage of one sister-wife to leave it. With Stephen Karam’s libretto inspired by memoirs of women who have left the FLDS (Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints) and the 2008 raid of the YFZ Ranch by the FBI, “Dark Sisters” was delivered with spot-on directing by Kristine McIntyre and riveting performances by an exceptional cast."
Aug 30th 2023
EXTRACT: "Wagner’s operas are well known to be budget busters, and lack of funds is probably one of the main reasons that Seattle Opera has not mounted the Ring Cycle in since 2013. After Speight Jenkins retired from his post as General Director in 2014, the company delivered The Flying Dutchman (2016) and Tristan und Isolde (2022), the latter under its current General Director, Christina Scheppelmann. Now starting its 60th season, Seattle Opera celebrated with Das Rheingold, but that can be seen as a bittersweet moment since Scheppelmann is moving on to take over La Monnaie/De Munt in Brussels at the end of the 2023-2024 season."
Jul 6th 2023
EXTRACT: " More than a hundred recordings have been made of his suite of 14 light pieces he called “The Carnival of the Animals”, and a range of his other works remain in the standard repertoire."
Jun 18th 2023
EXTRACT: "Conservatories and university music departments are filling up with fee-paying Asians as their parents pressure them to succeed in the West. Piano competitions around the world, now numbering about 800, are open to this new wave of Asian players. They are winning top prizes and they are building careers in Europe and the U.S.  Too often, according to some teachers, young Americans prefer computer games, the latest movies, rock bands, sports, or other less-demanding activities. The Asians are happy to fill the vacuum."
May 30th 2023
EXTRACT: "Three of Europe’s longtime leaders in contemporary jazz, now in their senior years, have just launched a CD of twelve  pieces that shows what a lifetime of sharing ideas in music can really produce." “New Stories” (Frémeaux et Associés) by the French trio of pianist and composer Hervé Sellin, bassist Jean-Paul Celea and drummer Daniel Humair is remarkable for improvisations so synchronized that the listener can feel the music come together from three angles in real time. The tracks were mostly composed or improvised by Sellin."
Mar 28th 2023
EXTRACT: "The young ex-dancer from Italy first burst upon the piano scene three years ago with 20 of her hand-picked Scarlatti sonatas. Now comes her second CD (Academy Classical Music) even more original and powerful, performing six of Baldassare Galuppi’s 18th century sonatas. Margherita Torretta‘s early training as a dancer gives her playing a swaying, graceful air while she maintains Alberti bass for control of the rhythm, momentum and especially continuity. Her ornamentation is boosted with some of her own improvisations, producing a fresher feel. It’s a magic combination."
Mar 24th 2023
EXTRACT: "Driven by a sense of mission and determination over several years, French pianist Lydia Jardon has completed a rare cycle of nine piano sonatas by Nikolai Miaskovsky. Her new CD  of numbers 6, 7 and 8 completes the task and offers a particularly rich sample of Russian experience in the worst of times. Miaskovsky may be only vaguely remembered today but he was a leader in the Soviet music world until the end of World War II. He left a wide range of engaging sonatas that have been brought back to life by Mme. Jardon on her own label AR Ré-Sé (AR 2022-1)."
Mar 16th 2023
EXTRACTS: "The most ambitious application yet of Steinway’s new digital piano, Spirio r, delivers stunning levels of sound and color in the new CD release of The Richter Scale, an hour-long keyboard drama written by well-known German composer and pianist Boris Bergmann." ----- "For the first time, the Spirio has been configured on a Steinway D grand to enable four-hand pieces to be played by two hands. The secondo score is first recorded in playback mode then combined with the live primo part. Liu is the live player who has to coordinate and fuse the two."---- "I took Bergmann’s advice and listened to the full composition from start to finish to best feel the gathering emotional turbulence. I was gripped by the melodies, harmonies, rhythms and percussive explosions along the way."