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Stratum is a new work deeply rooted in the notion of fatherhood.
NEW YORK CITY: awarded the 2026 Global Music Awards’ Silver Medal, Stratum from Navona Records brings together the formidable talents of Hayk Arsenyan and Matt Hare in a moving new work for bass and piano that is deeply rooted in the notion of fatherhood. Hare commissioned the work to honor his late father, and it was written by Arsenyan expressly for this duo, who recorded it for the first time as this digital single. Stratum explores various extended playing techniques on bass and piano to create new timbres and sonorities that complement lyrical melodies, inspired by Armenian Medieval traditions.
Lush harmonies and layered polyrhythmic phrases create a complex, textured soundscape, with virtuosic passages that showcase the broad capacities of the instruments and the performers. Hare’s deep, melancholic lines in the bass give way to Arsenyan’s delicate piano passages, making an ethereal splash of beauty that softens Hare’s dark, rich and commanding tone. Arsenyan’s haunting diminuendo at the end of the piece, made by plucking the piano strings, creates the sounds of church bells and evoke grief and the subtle resolve to live on. As per quote by Byron: “And thus the heart will break, yet brokenly live on.”
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