BLUE LANDSCAPES V: FOREVER THE SEA

With the release of Blue Landscapes V: Forever the Sea, perfectly subtitled "Music from a Quieter Place," internationally renowned classical pianist Robert Thies and Croatian born jazz and Latin jazz flutist Damjan Krajacic bring fresh, free-flowing energy to the art of new age improvisation they’ve created and mastered over the course of five critically lauded, genre-defining albums since the release of their 2012 self-titled debut.

In my review/writeup on their 2019 collection Blue Landscapes III; Frontiers, I related the story of how these musical soulmates launched their ongoing multiple award-winning venture. They rented some recording equipment and, eager to further explore the chemistry they fostered on several previous recordings and live performances, recorded 30 hours of totally improvised music over the course of a single week. The takeaway in that piece was that their resounding, highly organic success was confirmation that “unexpected, soul-stirring transcendence is possible when musicians are willing to venture outside their longtime areas of discipline/expertise and embrace the unknown.”

Clearly one of the reasons Blue Landscapes has captivated new age tastemakers and fans is the connection between the music of Thies and Krajacic and their love of Earth’s beauty and the planet’s many natural wonders. Building on their previous works, Volume V’s theme is what they call the “motion of the seas,” with pieces that painted images in Thies’ mind of the ocean   and its vastness. The duo’s magic is grounded in and driven by the fascinating spontaneity of their sessions, creating music that collectively gives rise to a concept. The theme and titles of Blue Landscapes V came during the editing process, with some pieces painting clear images or specific feelings. Some of the song titles were originally more emotional or direct, but Thies was careful not to dictate a specific emotion to listener, so as to allow them the chance to paint their own images.

The pianist adds, “During the recording process, neither Damjan nor I had any idea of the subtitle to come. But as I listened back to these tracks, a great number of them painted images in my mind of the sea and its vastness, and so it made sense that this album should be ascribed such a subtitle. There are a handful of tracks that don’t necessarily pull images of the sea for me, but somehow I found titles that incorporated the use of water quite easily and effectively, e.g. “the waters between us,” “through the mist.” I think “and so it shall be” is the only title that doesn’t incorporate something related to water, but it felt like an appropriate emotional closer to this musical story.”

Blue Landscapes aficionados who have enjoyed the duo’s music as a tool for soothing stress, meditational purposes or simply a joyful deep dive into an instrumental vibe like no other may not be aware of just how important these projects are to Thies and Krajacic, who usually take four years of meticulous work to complete each collection. The two have very separate lives outside the Blue Landscape realm. Krajacic has a daytime business as a web designer and has a wife and family to care for. Thies balances his days trying to make ends meet as a performing concert pianist and recording artist.

Though he counts his blessings to be involved in music full time, his career in classical music means he almost exclusively performs music by other composers. Blue Landscapes is his creative outlet, a chance, he says, “to put the scores away, put the music rack down on the piano, close my eyes and just reconnect with my instrument.” But with their other obligations, the two had to spread the editing/mixing phases on Blue Landscapes V over three years. Beyond the beautiful music, listeners should cherish each Blue Landscape project because as Thies says, “We can never be certain that we’ll have the luxury of time to create another, though we hope to.”

As with all Blue Landscapes immersions, listeners are best advised to close their eyes, visualize beautiful realms related to whatever brings them joy and inner peace and experience Forever the Sea as a straight through hour of exquisite sonic expression – from the hypnotic and lilting, graceful awakening of the opener “forever the sea” (whose improvisational, intertwining musings perfectly captures the duo’s dynamic synergy, for the previously uninitiated) to the haunting, reflective and soft-spoken final instrumental “and so it shall be.” For the musician geeks out there (Thies’ words!), it turns out that “forever the sea” has a rare time signature of 21/16, created unconsciously as they improvised. They feel (and listeners, by extension, may agree) that the track is not only one of the strongest on the set, but best reflects the Blue Landscapes sound.

Thies being a classical musician, he must point out that even in this era where listeners are more than likely to add a few tracks to a new age playlist than hear the album all at once, he paid special attention to key relationships between the tracks and how each track flowed into the next, with fascinating major and minor mood fluctuations. Hence, tracks 1 and 2 (“forever the sea,” “our sails know the way”) are in d minor, 3 (“mirror of floating stars”) is in C# minor, 4 (“(i’d follow you) to the edge of the world”) is in C# minor, and 5 and 6 (“through the mist,” “elle joue sous la pluie (she plays in the rain)”) are in g minor, etc.

Non musicians might appreciate the fact that “(i’d follow you) to the edge of the world” evolved from a kernel of an idea Thies composed when he was in his mid-teens, a very emotional time – based on the image of a couple in love sailing into the horizon to unknown shores. “It was a thrill for me to revisit that kernel of an idea and let it blossom into this track,” he says. “It is love at its most romantic and ideal for me.” The piece inspired another all-time first for Blue Landscapes, the inclusion of a vocal piece at the end of the album.

Its deeply poetic lyric was written by Grammy winning French/American composer/lyricist Danaë Xanthe Vlasse and sung magnificently (and at times, operatically) by Grammy winning classical crossover and new age vocalist Sangeeta Kaur. Vlasse cleverly wove into her lyrics all the song titles from the album, inspiring Thies to adapt the melody slightly to make the words shine. This emphatic closing piece is a powerful extension of the creative relationship between Vlasse and Thies, who played on one track on Mythologies and was pianist and producer on its Grammy nominated follow-up album Mythologies II.   

On Volume V, Thies and Krajacic proudly keep to the tradition of making all Blue Landscape albums purely acoustic recordings. “All sounds one hears are created on either the piano, the soprano flute, or the bass flute, and nothing else,” Thies says. “No synths, no pads, nothing electronic. Halfway through the track “voices in the blue,” one hears Damjan playing a rhythm track with his flute…that is not a drum machine. This acoustic quality of our music is important to us as we continue to aspire to feel a connection to nature, grounded in earth and its beauty.”