This album pays tribute to the goddess of the night sky, Nuit, depicted on the Stele of Revealing as a woman bending over the earth with a body completely covered in stars.
Maya Fridman & Maarten van Veen
Nuït
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About the album
This album pays tribute to the goddess of the night sky, Nuit, depicted on the Stele of Revealing as a woman bending over the earth with a body completely covered in stars.
To me, the best way to get to know an artist is through improvising. A spontaneous conversation — whether by means of words or sounds — can sometimes lead to subjects so deep that at some point all words and sounds resolve into stillness. After a moment of such stillness, I told Maarten about one of my dreams that came back to me during our first improvisation session.
In that dream I walked through endless streets of a grey city when, suddenly, I was transported into an empty space that expanded with ever-increasing speed. I saw a star approaching me and absorbing me in its brilliant nothingness. That nothingness in form of dark night sky was full of colors and sounds which I seemed to perceive with every particle of my body. Then, even so abruptly, I was back on the streets which were not grey anymore but full of colors and of distant music. I found my way into an observatory, looked for the largest telescope and tried to identify the star I just met by listening to the music it produced.
Perhaps the telescope in Maarten’s studio was partly responsible for bringing this memory back. But mostly it was improvising together with Maarten that made me reflect intensely on Nuit, the goddess of the starry night sky representing all that is in its infinity. In my mind, that dream is connected to my understanding of Nuït and it comes back to me when we perform.
– Maya Fridman
Tracklist click to play/pause
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Maya Fridman & Maarten van Veen
XIII
7:42
7:42
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Maya Fridman & Maarten van Veen
VIII (A)
2:15
2:15
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Maya Fridman & Maarten van Veen
VIII (B)
4:50
4:50
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Maya Fridman & Maarten van Veen
XIX
6:37
6:37
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Maya Fridman & Maarten van Veen
XXIV
3:55
3:55
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Maya Fridman & Maarten van Veen
X
3:24
3:24
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Maya Fridman & Maarten van Veen
VI
3:41
3:41
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Maya Fridman & Maarten van Veen
XXV
5:58
5:58
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Maya Fridman & Maarten van Veen
XXXI
7:07
7:07
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Maya Fridman & Maarten van Veen
XVIII
5:14
5:14
More information
| Label | TRPTK |
|---|---|
| Genre(s) | Classical – Contemporary (> 1920) |
| Artist(s) | Maarten van Veen Maya Fridman |
| Composer(s) | Fridman, Maya Veen, Maarten van |
| Recording location(s) | Westvestkerk, Schiedam (NL) |
| Recording date(s) | July 2021 |
| Cat. No. | TTK 0081 |
|---|---|
| Release date |
May 20th, 2022 |
| Additional links |
"I think these two musicians may have served up a modern classic. I have only heard two recordings from the TRPTK label – the first a beautiful and gripping Winterreise from Michael Wilmering - and have ended up awarding both Recommended status. Whatever it is that they are up I want to hear a lot more! As for this present release, I am thinking of my Recordings of the Year list."
David McDade, MusicWeb International
"Pianist Maarten van Veen and cellist Maya Fridman planned to play through a list of contemporary pieces, but discovered that they both love improvising. The result, the new album Nuït, is wonderful. Van Veen and Fridman telepathically communicate with each other."
Erik Voermans, Het Parool
"Much of the listening experience is the exploration of sounds and moods. Our performers push the capabilities of their instruments to explore resonances, contrasts, subtleties, and extremes. Each speaks and responds, blends and contrasts, challenges and submits. It is all a wonderful dialog and exploration. The virtuosity and creativity of the performers makes this all work. I am enchanted."
Rush Paul, Positive Feedback
"The album presents many moods, some are musical melodies and some are unworldly. The cello playing is also marvelous and is, as I would call it, classic Maya Fridman."
Marcus DiBenedetto, HRAudio
"The way Fridman's cello and Van Veen's piano colour in together is worth kudos to the recording team. With more frequent listening (definitely do), Nuït does eventually become an unwritten composition."
Paul Herruer, Dagblad van het Noorden
