Aziraphal - The Little Match Girl

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This site presents the original music of Aziraphal; composer and producer of Progressive Symphonic Ambient - electronic music with classical and romantic influences, creator of various media soundtracks, classical pianist and a programmer specializing in Java.

Last Song Posted: 2010/02/21 Who Do You Love

The Little Match Girl

Cover design by Visage
The main work of the new album is an electrosypmhonic poem in three movements "The Little Match Girl", based on the famous stirring and tragic tale by H. C. Andersen. It should be experienced as a musical soundtrack to a silent film or animation of the story. The first two movements faithfully paint the original tale; however, the third movement brings the unique approach to the story. Because the composition tells uf of the events as seen through the eyes of the little matchseller, we can follow her story further as she joins her Grandmother. For better understanding of the first two movements you can read the whole story that can be found on the Internet: (Link 1): The original story (Link 2): A slightly adapted version of the story Part 1: The Street The imaginary camera that the listener should experience in his/her mind pans over the rooftops of a small town; It is already dark, the Eve of the New Year. A town square comes in the view, delightfully illuminated by a thousand decorative lights. The snow falls gently as the last remaining people, with loads of presents ion their arms, hurry to their homes to celebrate New Year with their families. The sound of falling snowflakes suddenly changes; no longer gentle and romantic, it becomes harsh and dissonant, for it brings only suffering to the little girl whose story is now told by the composition. The cold, her fear and loneliness are interrupted only by the sounds of laughter and party from the open windows that she passes on her way to find buyers for her packets of matches. As she sinks to the ground, unable to move another step, the end of first movement sees her torn between the desire to warm herself by lighting a single match and the fear of the hard and avaricious father, who has only harsh words and beatings for the child; and what he calls love is even worse, for it leaves her in pain, embarrased and bleeding. Part 2: The Visions Finally summoning the courage to light a match, the girl experiences the visions of a warm stove, the table laden with food where the roast chicken and cuttlery seems to jump up and dance, and the marvellously decorated Christmas tree. Each of the visions gradually fades back in the harsh atonality of the freezing street. Seeing a shooting star after the third vision the girl is reminded of her kind late Grandmother. Striking the remaining matches she prays to see her again and to leave this world to be with her once again. Here the original story ends, but the final scene of the people finding her frozen body the next morning is not present in this work - for we still follow the story through the girl's eyes, and as the blinding light of the matches disappears she finds her magically transported in Grandmother's house. Part 3: Grandmother's House Awaking in the Grandmother's humble cottage the girl sees her cooking the dinner for New Years Eve. At first unable to believe that the suffering has come to an end; then notices the Grandmother's stove, the chicken and the Christmas tree - they are of course smaller and not as splendid as in her visions, but as they are Grandmother's own work they are all the lovelier for it. (Note, for instance, the sound-image of the tree's candles and decorations performed on a piano, as opposed to the synth arpeggiators of the tree from the second movement - that one, although bigger, impressive and machine-perfect, was nevertheless an impersonal product, designed for the masses on the town square!) The joy of the Grandmother and Grand-daughter seems to grow beyond all boundaries as they are united forever. The sorrows of the first movement are forgotten, and only with the final chord of the song we are returned to the terrible reality of the next morning. Review by Alejandro Hinojosa, Amazing Sounds (amazings.com) The artistic proposal by Aziraphal is very interesting for different reasons. Beyond an unusual combination of influences(such as the Vangelis of the "Heaven and Hell" era, Enigma, and the instrumental music for epic movie soundtracks), the style of this composer turns out to be very coherent and clear. By combining warm electronics with more acoustic sonorities, and even choirs shaped from combinations of the same voice singing in an imaginary language, with great skill, the artist creates an album brimming with emotions. Review by Jürgen Meurer, Progressive Newsletter auf Deutsch :) Das später besprochene Soniq Theater Album und das Werk von Aziraphal haben eines gemeinsam: es handelt sich um das Soloprojekt eines Keyboarders. Allerdings sind die Grundausrichtungen sehr unterschiedlich. Denn der Slowene Matej Hrovat, der unter dem Pseudonym Aziraphal antritt, streift lediglich den Progressive Rock Bereich. Hrovat ist klassisch ausgebildeter Pianist und Software-Experte, und so verwundert es nicht, dass er genau diese Stärken auf seinem Album verbindet und eine sehr durchdachte Mischung aus synthetisiertem und klassisch-akustischem Material zu einem recht atmosphärischen Ganzen zusammensetzt. In seinem Begleitschreiben weist er schon darauf hin, welche speziellen Stücke wohl für den Prog-Fan interessant sein könnten, und ich stimme voll mit seiner Annahme überein. Wobei dies allerdings auf diejenigen Prog-Fans einzuschränken ist, die auch eine gewisse Vorliebe für Keyboardersoloalben mitbringen. Besagte Titel sind ganz eindeutig inspiriert durch einen gewissen Herrn Wakeman. Manche Synthi- und Pianopassagen erinnern sehr stark an frühe Wakeman-Werke (six wives und King Arthur, um genauer zu sein). Der ausgesprochen pompöse Eröffnungstitel "ave triumphator" klingt, der Titel sagt es schon aus, wie der Soundtrack zu einem Monumentalfilm und ist einer der besagten Kandidaten für den Symphonic-Prog-Fan. Ähnliche Elemente finden sich auch im knapp 30-minütigen Titelsong, dem "electrosymphonic poem in three movements", basierend auf einer Geschichte von H.C.Andersen. Ein weiteres wesentliches Element in der Musik des Slowenen ist neben dem elektronischen Instrumentarium der Einsatz der menschlichen Stimme, wie z.B. in "the mirrors of Apollo (choral and fugue)". Hier erinnert es an Enigma oder Adiemus, und manche Stellen mögen hier in den Ohren des gemeinen Prog-Fans möglicherweise gelegentlich hart an der Kitsch-Grenze vorbei schrammen. Andererseits enthalten die Kompositionen so manche Melodie, die sich schnell in den Gehörgängen festsetzen kann. Sehr gelungen finde ich diejenigen Passagen, in denen er durch weiche E-Pianoklänge und seichte Synthi-Ebenen eine Atmosphäre erzeugt, die an alte Vangelis-Highlights denken lässt. Was durchaus kein Zufall sein dürfte, nennt der Künstler doch Vangelis neben Wakeman, Oldfield (den ich allerdings nirgends heraushöre), Emerson, Wendy Carlos und Enigma als Hauptinspirationsquelle. Der Musiker selbst beschreibt seine Spielart als "progressive symphonic ambient", und das trifft es wohl recht gut.

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