CD Release by Michal Rataj, Oskar Török, and PRSO
Under the title Letters From Sounds, the two artists released an acclaimed album in 2022, which innovatively blends the worlds of contemporary jazz, modern classical music, ambient, and interactive electronics.
Following a commission by the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra (PRSO), a brand-new orchestral composition for two soloists and a large symphony orchestra was created, directly inspired by the musical world of Letters From Sounds.
This is not an orchestration of existing pieces but a newly composed symphonic cycle offering a completely new type of listening experience. The more-than-half-hour-long concertante composition is internally divided into a series of smaller, almost cinematic vignettes. The opening melody itself recalls the film score Michal Rataj composed in 2023 for the feature-length documentary Death of Death by Dāvis Sīmanis, where Oskar Török played the trumpet part. However, the remaining seven sections take the listener through entirely different realms, marked by tension between the grand symphonic sound and intimate club electronics, the rhythmic pulse of acoustic instruments and electronic drum machines, and the virtuosic jazz trumpet, which at times becomes the most intimate, dreamlike musical instrument. Field recordings also bring elements of narrative anchoring into the world of absolute music.
The collaboration between the two musicians continues their previous projects that navigated the space between contemporary jazz and classical music, traditional instruments, and live electronics. It began with the Points–Rataj Quintet (CD 2016), from which an electro-acoustic trio with saxophonist Luboš Soukup evolved (Hornscape, 2020). The musical lexicon of Michal Rataj and Oskar Török spans from electronic ambient music, through echoes of club electronics, to various forms of contemporary jazz and acousmatic music. Michal Rataj's extensive orchestral experience with contemporary symphonic sound (Raining Inside 2008, Temporis 2016, Movis 2019) is combined here with meticulously composed live electronics of a post-acousmatic nature, infused with Török's virtuosic trumpet playing.
