Mike Lazarev – Out Of Time

Injazero

There is something kind of fitting about the title to Mike Lazarev‘s latest mini opus. It is a work of real compositional thought and love, but although it comprises ten tracks, it clocks in at a little over twenty minutes.

You may think that it would only constitute sketches or fragments, but each of these short piano-led pieces is perfect in its integrity and the moods captured as the album moves along, veering from melancholic introspection to dramatic sweeping vistas.

Recorded as the soundtrack to an imaginary film, Out Of Time works really well in that format, but it is also satisfying in that nothing outstays its welcome. The idea is similar to Felt‘s Let The Snakes Crinkle Their Heads To Death and begs the question why do some artists stretch non-existent ideas over huge durations when more satisfaction can be gained from these perfectly proportioned vignettes?

The music is mainly piano-led, and the gentle droplets of opener “Prelude” evoke swaying leaves caught in a breeze with a backdrop of a distant horizon. A sense of solitude, but not an unwelcome one, to which violins weep on “Out Of Time”. The playing is always measured and in some sections, the space between the notes is the real key.

Strings sweep here and there, but only briefly, as if to bring the highlight back to the piano. “Somewhere Sometime” contains a dark, dramatic flourish, but it is over in an instant, like a brief passing storm resetting the mood. “Off Time” has a hesitant, slightly romantic feel to the playing, the resonant bass notes lending a profundity that subtle strings almost sweep away as the album closes.

The subtlety of the pieces and their evocative nature more than make up for the short duration of Out Of Time. It genuinely doesn’t need to be any longer and contains as much if not more pleasure than an album two or three times its length.

-Mr Olivetti-