Sometimes…or rather rarely we come across a piece of art that has been created only for the sake of art and expressing one’s self completely, transparent, and void of any ulterior motives…
…and some other rare times do we find ourselves in front of a multipotential, fusing different art mediums to weave his storytelling into existence…
We are lucky indeed today to have crossed paths with this multi-talented artist…Parjam Parsi is a composer, pianist, audio engineer, and writer.
Parjam Parsi fuses all of his talents to create art that can be experienced in a multi-sensory fashion…and that is evident in his album “Empty Spaces”.
“Empty Spaces” is not just a 12-track instrumental album with classical blood running through it and heavy storytelling elements…it also has a story specifically written for it…by none other than Parjam himself.
“Empty Spaces” is Parjam’s 4th studio album, it was recorded in Parjam’s private studio called “Somewhere Records” with Jonathan Gasparian and the Dark Close Ensemble.
It was released by Winter Music Entertainment in 2016.
The story is based on a short story that Parjam wrote…and it goes something like this…
A man goes on a journey, only to find himself in a mysterious city called “Fear Land”…
This city’s inhabitants have lived for thousands of years under an ancient spell…
Our protagonist meets a woman…one of the most beautiful women in the city…
…and they fall in love together…
…they get to be the parents of two beautiful twins…
…life goes on…until…
…the ancient spell finds its way into their lives…destroying everything…
…turning their beautiful life on its head…
…everything turns black…
…he opens his eyes…finding himself in the middle of a dark forest…with no memories…
…he starts taking steps toward the city…with each step, he regains a fragment of a memory…
…arriving at his house, he finds 3 graves dug out…
…starts thinking about his family, wondering where they are…
…he hears the laughter of his twins…and the singing of his wife…
…she takes his hand…asks him to join them for dinner…he happily obliges…
…during dinner…the church bells ring…from a distance…he falls to the ground…
Parjam’s story took to the stage in 2015 but was briefly halted due to changes that had been made by the artistic director of Winter Music Entertainment.
The album “Empty Spaces” acts as the musical backdrop to the story with its 12 tracks that I imagine cover all the scenes that we went briefly through…but surely add more emotional layers to the whole experience…
Now that we know what the story is about…it’s the perfect time to jump into “Empty Spaces” and experience the audio side of the story…
“Empty Spaces” starts with the aptly named track “Arrival”…
What now we understand is the moment when our protagonist arrives at Fear Land.
The track is mainly played with the piano…with strings coming in later…
It serves as a point of introduction to this world.
The strings have a very strong classical feel to them, but the piano is more modern and contemporary. It’s a very relaxing introduction to the experience and sucks you in accordingly.
The second track is “The Pulse of the City”…starting with a piano acting like a heartbeat…or a pulse…a very slow, dying pulse.
The chord progression is dark with a hint of hope mixed within.
Throughout the whole piece, the lower octaves of the piano is playing that “pulse”…
Taking us to the third track “June Elegy”.
This track has more movement in it…the melody makes you feel as if someone is talking
…nearing the end of the track the piece gets a bit more classical with its scale changes and feels like reaching a high peak of emotions.
Going into the fourth track “The Grey Melodies I”…
This track has baffled me a bit…I was trying to link it to the story…and what I felt was…it maybe tells the stories of the people living in the city…how they are completely under that ancient spell.
Moving to the fifth track “Fractured”…
The track starts with a cello melody…then the piano comes into play.
It is one of the darker tracks in the album..it’s telling a very sad story.
The cello is in the background…yet somehow it manages to be one of the highlights of the album.
Now, with the sixth track…we get the picture even more…this piece is called “Sudden”.
I would assume this is where the ancient spell starts creeping its way into the lives of our happy family with their twins.
This track also has one of the rare moments in the album where the piano stops completely, gets out of the way, and lets the cello and strings continue playing till the end alone…making us feel that loneliness too.
We then get to the seventh track “The Grey Melodies II”…this time it starts very slow…notes wide apart…
But I can imagine this part in the story where life is going on…moving slowly, nothing is happening, but bit by bit life is turning on its head…that is also apparent in the energy of this track…it starts almost with no energy…and keeps climbing up and up till it ends.
We’ve now reached the eighth track “In The Bleak”…are you thinking what I’m thinking?
This must be the part where he finds himself in the dark forest, with no memories.
Even the music is happier…as if he has forgotten the evil that the ancient spell caused.
Our protagonist walks back to his house in the ninth track “The Dreams We Chase”.
The music is lively, the piano is playing sweet arpeggios in the background, and the strings are performing beautiful swells as if dancing with the piano.
The tenth track “The Light Within”…has a very unique energy and mood to it.
I can’t tell if the hero is feeling hopeful or desperate…but this is the power of this piece, it takes your emotions and keeps on flipping them.
Feels like the kind of music piece where the actors on stage would be acting their hearts out in front of.
“Stream of Life” is the eleventh track…and it starts with the cellos playing emotionally like they were the stream of life itself. Pianos are more subdued in this track…what makes this track work so effectively is the harmony between the cello and piano… especially when the string section comes into the picture, in the second half of the piece.
…which leads us to the last piece of this mesmerizing journey…
The twelfth and last track…” Nothing to be Said”…
This track takes us back to the mood of the beginning of this story…it’s hopeful, a bit on the bright side…
…my interpretation of this piece…is that this is the feeling of our protagonist, in the last moments of the story…before everything ends…a moment he felt the love that he had for his family, a moment where everything felt perfect….just right before everything ends.
“Empty Spaces” by Parjim Parsi is an emotional and moving collection of musical pieces that should be experienced with the story that Parjim wrote to get the full effect and range of emotions that he intended for the audience.
We will be on the lookout for new projects by Parjam, who is a true artist and we wish him all the best in the world. Archive