Between Brahms by Sissi Makropoulou

What kind of music should you play when you decide to do this pointless drive to no specific destination? I hope you know which drive I mean. You are usually alone there, but you never feel lonely. Lately it’s been silence that accompanies this long held ritual. But when I first got my driver’s license, the absolute soundtrack was a Johannes Brahms album played on piano by Glenn Gould. A summit meeting of two heartbreaking loners, that served classical music as if it was the only thing they ever loved. To adapt and perform those four Intermezzi on harp was a dream come true.

During post-production, the temptation to succumb to some guilty pleasures, was too great to overcome. A trained ear will notice some ad libitum hard panning in peak moments of the composition, a technique hardly used in classical recordings, as it may disorient the listener. I wonder if a total sense of position is overrated. This very propelling of sound through musical space, is not only an invitation to lose direction, but also a symbolic tribute to the locomotive character of the Intermezzi, as a soundtrack for therapeutically idle car rides.

The music was arranged, performed, recorded, mixed and mastered by Sissi Makropoulou, in her bedroom in Berlin, on a 100 years old rare Style 3 Lyon and Healy harp.

Sissi Makropoulou is a versatile harp virtuoso, composer, and electronic music artist based in Athens. With a distinguished career as a harpist, she has collaborated with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Deutsche Oper, and MusicAeterna, and has performed as a soloist with the Athens State Orchestra, Sinfonietta Köln, and the Nordwestdeutsche Sinfonietta.