solo studio albums

ROHAN KRIWACZEK'S GHOST TRAIN

"By the light of a guttering candle at an ungodly hour I did, as I was bidden, and settled down to listen to Ghost Train. I drew my velvet curtains so that I might gaze upon the steeple of St. Augustine’s church silhouetted against the sodium haze of the city sky at night. The lonely light that blazed in the solitary window of another midnight traveler only served to confirm my most dread suspicion – I was alone, utterly and unreachably alone, my only companion the sound of terror, the serenades of the forgotten and the damned.

My fevered mind wandered through enchanted forests where the skeletal branches of winter trees thrown into harsh relief by the blazing moon caressed my tortured body with their icy fingers and invited me to indulge in forbidden, licentious pleasures. How I shuddered with delicious anticipation at the shrieks and moans that took form around me in the darkness of my crimson room. Only the stars bear witness to my terrible wish that this night might last forever and that dawn might never break lest I be stolen from my wondrous reverie before I reach the achingly beautiful peak of delirium on whose edge I teeter.

Thus I am doomed, doomed to spend these hours of solitude with the phantoms that have become my only friends in this veil of tears we call life. The ghosts with their elegant costumes and graceful manners who speak of a pleasure I will never know unless I abandon myself to their expert ministrations and yield to the wanton desires of my degenerate mind….Doomed I say……Doomed..We are all Doomed......"

Mr. Matthew Tromans Esquire – London.

This CD consists of 16 untitled tracks and last 45 mins.

Track 5

Track 6

THE WANDERING JEW

THE WANDERING JEW is all about what cannot be drawn from a score: theatricality of performance; untempered tuning; swung rhythms; manic ornamentation; ragged edges; and most of all, my own interpretation and expression of the East European soul (as I perceived it at the time). Raucous, theatrical, and at times, mysterious the music features clarinets, flutes, violin, accordion, zither, saxes, bagpipes, percussion etc. 66 minutes.

His own imaginary folk music...genius... - Mixing It, BBC Radio 3

1. The First Time I saw the mountains
2. Birds Fly East To West
3. The Keening
4. Catching The Temple Thieves
5. A Woodland Tale
6. The Cat And The Seagull
7. Grab That Goat
8. Sad Skies Rolling In
9. Dum-di-dah
10. Farewell At Sunrise
11. Some Said
12. The Sorcerer On The Hill
13. A Japanese Garden
14. A Sighing Introduction
15. The Busker’s Dream
16. The Empty Bothy Dance
17. Sleepwalking
18. The Building Of The Temple
19. Mendal The Happy Gangster
20. The Tragedy Of Ben Ephraim
21. If God Were A Goat
    

ROHAN KRIWACZEK'S MOBY DICK

Rohan Kriwaczek’s MOBY DICK FANTASY is the by-product of a commission from Radio 4 to compose the score for a new adaptation in the classic serial slot (July 2000). Having completed the underscore he then set about putting the pieces and fragments of incidental music together to create the modern CD equivalent of a concert suite. In 10 distinct sections it follows the narrative drama of the play through music and occasional sound effects. All the instruments were recorded specifically for the project and there is no use of samples. All instruments and voices were performed by the composer except classical flute: Philippe Barnes; and classical trumpet: Jacques Cohen. Ram’s horn, clarinet, accordion, violin, viola, flute, trumpet, percussion. 37 minutes.

The original score is particularly brilliant - The Mail on Sunday,

A hauntingly original score ... excellent - if slightly grim - Time Out,

Simultaneously beautiful and haunting, an incredible achievement - Sarah Crawford Amazon.co.uk

1. The horns of Fate.
2. Ishmael sets of to sea with dreams of whaling.
3. The first exciting whale hunt.
4. A dance of celebration at catching a whale.
5. The dangerous business of extracting the blubber. Meanwhile the sailors hear the voices of the drowned echoing on the wind.
6. An educated man feels himself alone on a frightened ship. Ahab’s madness broods darkly on Moby Dick.
7. Amidst the fear and resignation grows a certain unexpected tenderness.
8. A dream of mutiny ends in cowardice. Now their fate is sealed.
9. Ahab’s madness finds its triumphal end; the ship is sunk, all hands are lost.
10. Exhausted, Ishmael drifts alone, clinging to the coffin-buoy, and muses on the death of Ahab and his friends.
    

LOOKING BACK

1. A Fistful of Klezmer
2. Strange Meeting
3. The Wrong Dogs
4. King David's Dream
5. Looking Back
6. Deborah's Doina
7. Tempting the Damned
8. A Warning from History
9. A Jew in an Indian Garden
10. The Second Keening
11. The Long Way Home
12. Three Preachers
13. Coda - The Wrong Dogs pt. 2
    

RITUAL DARK MUSIC

Ritual Dark Music is in many ways the follow up to The Wandering Jew, though more stark and ritualised in tone. The musical language veers between Jewish, East European, Middle Eastern, contemporary classical, and Hammer Horror soundtrack. This album should be thought of as a giant building, monstrously proportioned, and inside a series of halls, each ceremonially dedicated. Although not specifically narrative, it should be perceived as a whole journey and listened though from beginning to end. The instrumentation is: ram’s horn, clarinet, flute, Bulgarian bagpipe, saxophone, piano, prepared piano, violin, ‘cello, zither, voice and ritual percussion.

Creative Genius - The Times

1. 1. It is time.
2. The Hall of the Many Mirrors.
3. The Hall of the Heavy Breathing.
4. The First Ritual Dance.
5. The Hall of the Monstrous Ego.
6. The Hall of the Dark Heart.
7. The Hall of the Piper’s Warning.
8. The Hall of the Great Handwashing.
9. The Hall of the Many Walkings.
10. The Second Ritual Dance.
11. The Hall in praise of High Mountains.
12. The Hall of Magic Words and God’s Great Flood.
13. The Hall of Desperate Measures.
14. The Last Ritual Dance.
    

ROHAN KRIWACZEK - SAMPLER CD

1. The Singer Explains
2. A Call To Arms
3. Chasing the Wind
4. Oh, Terrible Day
5. Deborah’s Doina
6. Tempting the Damned
7. The Horns of Fate
8. The Hall of the Heavy Breathing
9. Farewell at Sunrise
10. The Chieftain on the Hill
11. The Hall of the Monstrous Ego
12. King David’s Dream
13. A Jew in an Indian Garden