COSMIC LIBERTY

Cosmic Liberty' is an odyssey through myriad musical landscapes; the listener is taken on a journey through every layer of imagination, battling and jumping from one plateau to the next as in the linear motion of archaic video games. The songs were constructed by an intense accumulation of constantly multiplying sections that complicate the listener’s adventure.

Recorded and mixed January 2018 by John Davis at Bunker Studios in Brooklyn, NY.

All tracks composed and arranged by Casimir Liberski except "Stasis" by Louis de Mieulle.

• Casimir Liberski: Steinway C Grand Piano, Fender Rhodes 88-keys, Wurlitzer electric piano, Octave “the Cat,” Yamaha CS-60, Roland RS-09, Farfisa compact organ, Gretsch harmonium, Mellotron MK IV, Yamaha CS-01, Hammond M3, Korg Minilogue and Monologue, E-mu Emulator II, Pro 2, Synclavier 2, Solina, Oberheim SEM, Roland Jupiter-8. 

• Matt Garstka: Drums (Tama Star kit) 

• Louis de Mieulle: Fender P-Bass 73, Yamaha BB5000, Ukulele Bass

 Watch the album title track: Cosmic Liberty

Q&A with Casimir Liberski

Where does this project stand in regard to the progression of his style/philosophy?

This album is a sort of self-imposed rite of passage encompassing all the performative and compositional aspirations I’ve had over the years. I was seeking challenges and I got them! The compositions themselves took many months to compose, arrange and notate, and came out of years of assimilating and amalgamating heterogeneous styles of music into a unique style that became the album “Cosmic Liberty.” And of course playing this suite of compositions required demanding pianistic training. I wanted to break all the barriers between classical, electronic, progressive metal, and jazz music, and I wanted to push my physical and mental limits.

I come from a jazz background, but for this album I needed to put everything down on paper and direct the progressive rock musicians playing it with strict accuracy. I borrowed the talents of two virtuosi: Matt Garstka, the drummer for the band Animals as Leaders, and Louis de Mieulle, as much a composer as a bassist. The three of us met at Berklee back in 2006 and made a record together five years later of Louis' originals called "Defense Mechanisms.” I've always wanted to make another record with this trio featuring my compositions. 

My philosophy for this record was to write without being restricted by what seemed possible -- it was a desperate bid to research the unknown and perform the undone with complete exactitude. Because there are so many sections to each tune, you might get the sense that it’s almost incidental or unplanned, but I think the extreme precision of the playing will convince you otherwise. I would hope that the total effect induces a trancelike state that can be felt as a psychedelic experience.

Please describe how/if improvisation affected composition and recording

There’s almost no improvisation on this album, and even many of the solos were written out. But in trying to break free from “free,” I framed, developed and pieced together what were originally improvisations. I didn't start writing this material with any preconceived plans or forms except some numerical sequences here for the beats, some melodic ideas there, borrowed compositional techniques and devices, et cetera. So I pretty much wrote these pieces as if improvising them in slow-motion. Essentially, composing is like improvising at a flexible pace, navigating and deciding the succession of musical events in abstracted time. Composition and improvisation are interconnected, and one nourishes the other.

Is there a general "theme" to the album, is "Bushwick" the NYC avenue and is there any story/history behind that song?

The dystopian, accelerationist mood reflects my time in New York this past decade: the hardship, noise, and relentlessness of that urban maze. I spent time in Bushwick, Bed-Stuy, West Harlem, Williamsburg, et cetera and named several tunes after these places. Music is very geographic for me, and the album evokes for me the familiar story of a young man’s long questing after his dreams far away from his home, and of his return.