Sabine is a new single from Silentaria, a music project by Rixa White. Sabine is named after a character in Romain Rolland’s masterful 10 volume novel Jean-Christophe (1904 -1912). And like Sabine in Rolland’s novels, the song by Silentaria leaves an unforgettable impression. Sabine is simply not to miss.
Music inspired by literature is rare these days. In New Age music we have quite a few albums released each year inspired by ancient myths and tales (Atlantis is always popular, so is also Greek myths), but few albums are composed in tribute to books and literary characters. But with Sabine, Silentaria shows the way and can be an inspiration for other artists.
Sabine’s Grace
Silentaria gives us this description:
“Sabine is a pretty small-boned woman who charms by her grace, her youth and her gentleness. With light brown hair, pale blue eyes and well marked arched eyebrows, she looks like an expression of the Madonna in Filippo Lippi’s paintings. Jean-Christophe, a German musician, never dreamed that a small crack in the closed shutters is enough for love to peep out. With magic of indefinite silences and trivial words, their love grows. But they hold in their love and their emotional moments are prevented either by an intruder or their own hesitation. Finally their relationship cuts off by unexpected Sabine’s death, while Jean-Christophe is away on a concert tour.”
This is the dramatic background for Silentaria’s single. It is always a joy to hear artists who master the sound of analogue synths. While new synths, like Sylenth1 and Omnisphere, have clarity, the 1980s synths have depth, warmth and atmosphere. Silentaria uses the synth choir and strings to perfection. It is like listening to Constance Demby’s classic Novus Magnificat (1986), with a modern twist.
Inspired by the book Jean-Christophe and the early 1900s, the light piano melody tells the story of love and loss, and the value of cherishing good memories.
Is it possible for a song to tell as much as a 10 volume book? Perhaps not. But Silentaria’s Sabine is a marvelous song that makes you want to read the book and hear more releases by this fine artist. It shows too that text and notes can tell the same story. That is a big accomplishment.
Rixa White and his music project “Silentaria” have been very busy indeed, and I’ve been fortunate enough to have “The Beginning of the End” to review. So before moving on to discuss the music, a few brief thoughts on the first question. Who is Rixa White? My thoughts on that are as follows: I don’t want to know. You see, anyone who goes to such lengths to protect their identity must have some very good reasons in doing so. Bands like Crimson Glory, Kiss, GWAR, Lordi and Slipknot have done similar and I can certainly see the appeal of having a horde of fans at your shows, and then when it’s all done, taking the mask off and walking down to the shops and being left in peace. In essence, the best of both worlds. The focus should be the music.
Now at this point I should admit to being a fan of Vangelis (who ironically first started out in prog rock with Demis Roussos) and I can most definitely blame that on the film Blade Runner. Some comparisons have been made between the two which I think is a little unfair. Vangelis is more “symphonic electronica”, more grandiose, whereas Silentaria has more of the ambient new age electronica feel to it, and has resisted the urge to throw in oddities for the sake of it.
Opening track “Emerge” gives an immediate insight into what to expect, ethereal synthesizers, chilled out ambience, and is a little “Sacred Spirit” but without the Native American chants. “The Beginning of the End” is a confirmation of the direction the album is headed in. It’s somewhat reminiscent of Mark Snow and Sylvester Levay’s work, but here there’s a very solitary feel to the music. In fact, if you cast your mind back to the old days you could easily place this music with the “3DMark” tech demos portraying very surreal scenes such as the statue in the rain (2001).
Electronica, “New Age” ambient chill music is unapologetically what it is. Silentaria / Rixa White has thankfully resisted the urge to draft in elements of dubstep, or whatever else happens to be fashionable at the time, and has remained true to his musical vision. And while I’ve mentioned his musical vision I wonder if perhaps he may pair up his music with his poetry in future works.
“What’s Real?” and “Eastward” tracks are featured by Bruce Gall at ”Atmospheres” program on One World Radio on Tuesday May 28, 2013 at 10:00 PM GMT.
8pm UK (3pm EST) Spectral Voyages – Dave Butler 9pm UK (4pm EST) Simply Piano – Laura McMillan 10pm UK (5pm EST) Atmospheres – Bruce Gall featuring Silentaria music 11pm UK (6pm EST) The Album Show Midnight UK (7pm EST) Music From My Alcove – SeVen (4 hr show)
Every Friday, a band or artist is featured in Musical-Things music blog and this week it was Rixa White, Silentaria. Here is the article about Silentaria on Friday May 25, 2013. Read the full article here.
This week’s special guest is multi-talented Rixa White. Read on…
Rixa proves that the art of creating beautiful melodies in music is still alive by effortlessly producing them throughout his music. His style, largely instrumental, seamlessly blends classic electronic sounds such as synthesizers and drum machines with more acoustic elements. Rixa’s pieces, which are each accompanied with a poem (on his YouTube channel), takes the form of contemporary program music with the music representing the narrative of Rixa’s poetry. This makes it particularly powerful both musically and emotionally.
This is particularly the case in ‘Sabine’, where the piano holds the main melody whilst a string countermelody weaves in and out, binding the piece together. The harmony is simple and so is the rhythm, leaving the melody somewhat exposed but totally in its element. As the texture grows, the intensity increases as the additional sound effects add a magic to ‘Sabine’ that reflects the romantic description Rixa himself attributes to the piece.
There is an old school electronic vibe to Rixa’s music; the instrumental quality reminiscent of movie soundtracks from the 80s. But it is this quality of mixing the old with the new that makes Rixa music so interesting to listen to. His music touches people’s souls and with tens of thousands of YouTube listeners attesting to this, we also agree that Rixa make beautiful music.
Here’s an excerpt of ‘Sabine’ for your musical enjoyment…
Sabine and other Silentaria tracks are available to buy on iTunes.
Are you a fan of Rixa White’s music? Drop us a comment and share your thoughts.
Taking on the persona of something between Jason from Friday the 13th films and the phantom of the opera with the white Venetian-style mask, Silentaria (aka Rixa White) has developed a style that carries enough mystery and threat and yet creates a style of 21st century instrumental and synthpop that i have very fond memories of from the 80’s but it would be a mistake to think he is merely resurrecting a past sound. Back then the music was in its infancy and had quite of bit of developing to go through and now “the man in white” has created a very accessible, catchy and rhythmic series of tracks that retain the originals feel but with modern technology and brings us a much smoother sound.
So, with elements of UK 80’s synth mixed with influences of the likes of Vangelis, Jarre and Kitaro, the albums “The Beginning of the End” (2011) and “What’s Real?” (2012) give the listener a clean and crisp new take with excellent synth sounds, drum machines and, above all, great melodies. There’s also a subtle diversity in the tracks so i found i was always intrigued to find out what was coming next possibly due to the composers experiences of different cultures.
I listen to plenty of electronic music and it’s quite refreshing to listen to relatively short pieces that don’t really come into the space, ambient, Berlin-school, therapeutic categories. Some will obviously pigeon-hole certain tracks but for me after hearing both albums there’s a beautiful simplicity to them. Maybe i’m getting the meaning of the wholeness and emptiness philosophy.
The music and the mysterious character have all the makings of a great live act, too.
Two excellent albums worth checking out.
Bruce Gall
Join the Show!
“What’s Real?” and “Eastward” tracks will be featured by Bruce Gall at “Atmospheres” program on One World Radio on May 28, 2013 at 10:00 PM GMT.
About video: This video demonstrates a free style poem from Rixa White named “An Untold Love“. It contains a romantic themed slideshow that intentionally shows women with hidden faces to project a secret love.
About music: The background music is “Sabine” which is a romantic Electronic single track from Silentaria.
About poem: The poem is a story of a lover whose beloved died before they can express their emotions to each other. It is inspired by the love between Jean-Christophe and Sabine in Romain Rolland’s novel: Jean-Christophe.
For celebrating Valentine’s Day and honoring Romain Rolland’s birthday, Rixa White; the masked musician and poet behind Silentaria Electronic Music; calls a lost love to life by releasing a romance single track named “Sabine”.
This contemporary instrumental love lament was formed in Rixa White’s mind while he was reading Romain Rolland’s Nobel Prize winner novel, Jean-Christophe. He composed Sabine single track with a profound sense of drama and romanticism, which differs from his usual contemplative, melodic synthesizer music. The music base is piano and violin, mixed with choirs and flute for creating a romantic blend of passion and melancholy.
True love never dies and in his desperate desire to snatch her from destruction, in need of denying her death, Rixa White tells Sabine love story through harmonies and rhythms. “Sometimes a patch of sky, large, pale blue like Sabine eyes reconnects one to an old memory. Like Jean-Christophe, I’ve dedicated this song to her and strove to call her to life in my music.” said Rixa White.
Lyrics are wonderful for expressing emotions, but to recall the unique personal memory of being in love for each listener and to awake a lost love story buried deeply inside, Rixa White has chosen to release Sabine as a Romance Electronic music track without lyrics.
About Jean-Christophe: Jean-Christophe (1904 -1912) is the novel in ten volumes by Romain Rolland for which he received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915. It was translated into English by Gilbert Cannan. The central character, Jean-Christophe Krafft, is a German musician, a composer of genius whom Romain Rolland called: “Beethoven in the modern world”.
About Silentaria: Silentaria (http://www.silentaria.com) is an Electronic New Age musical project founded in 2010 by Rixa White, entrepreneur, pianist, keyboardist, composer and poet, known as “Man in White”. The project’s music combines elements of Electronic, New Age, Contemporary Instrumental, Ambient and Progressive Rock genres. It is the reminiscence of music projects such as Enigma, Yanni, Jean Michel Jarre, Kitaro, Vangelis and Era.
Silentaria | An Electronic New Age musical project by Rixa White 