In my free minutes, I like to look at photos of mountain valleys and waterfalls or paintings where fog lies in ravines like a forgotten scarf. And I always turn on music. Not just any music, but only that which knows how to be silent between the notes. Then something happens. A stone in the picture seems to start breathing, and a guitar string sounds like water.
The EP “Last Exit from Utopia” by composer and guitarist Ratyński was written precisely for such listening. This is an EP of two pieces for solo guitar. In it, there is a farewell to the thought of an ideal world and a return to nature as it was before us, wild and indifferent. The booklet opens with lines about a river that sings and about a dancing stone, and reminds us that man is only a guest here. This is the role I tried on while listening. The first piece is “Creek Dance”. A bright major key, a swaying pulse: that is how you walk along a trail when there is nowhere to rush. One can hear the Brazilian choro intonation, strict classical polyphony, and somewhere very far away an echo of Polish mountain music from Zakopane. The thumb leads a stubborn bass line: below water murmurs, while above a singing melody weaves. Hidden behind the lightness are motifs that will return later. The creek does not yet know that it flows toward the cliff.
The cliff appears in the second piece, “Moving Monolith”. Here everything is heavier and darker: a minor key, free rubato, a rhythm that does not fit into a grid, and a bass that makes the whole body of the guitar seem to hum. As if a giant stone is shifting from its place. And then suddenly a thin transparent overtone, and the weight lets go for a second. The guitar either goes into a deep, visceral hum, or soars into a ringing height, and against this backdrop our attempts to bring order to the world look very small. Separately, it is worth mentioning the sound. The classical guitar is recorded without synthesizers or heavy digital processing. The microphones hear everything: the presence of the musician, the touch of fingers to the strings, the movement of air, the response of the body’s wood. Pauses are also recorded, and for me they are the main thing: the silence between the notes that I started with.
If you know Ratyński’s previous works – Surprise Stopover, Tomorrow Is a Storm, My Head Is the Mountain – you will hear a familiar language. If you don’t know them, this is a good place to start. Turn on “Last Exit from Utopia”, open a photo of mountains, and do nothing else. The guitar will tell the rest itself.
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