GET WELL SOON Vexations (2010 UK 14-track CD album -
'Vexations': that's the title Konstantin Gropper has given his second
album. To him it's not just the title of a piano piece by Eric Satie, but
it's above all an expression of discomfort, disenchantment and anger.
Of the disharmony through the world. Under the pseudonym Get Well
Soon, Gropper left a significant musical mark on 2008 with his debut
album 'Rest Now Weary Head! You Will Get Well Soon'. The follow-up
is a concept album about The Stoics, and starts with field recordings
made behind his parents' house and ends with the fall of the Roman
Empire. In between you'll find Werner Herzog, Seneca, Georg
Büchner, Homer, Peter Sloterdijk, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Sartre, the
latest findings about conflict studies, questions about whether anger is
an inevitable part of human nature, and every artist's fear of
irrelevance [as seen through the eyes of Moby Dick]. Considered in
terms of content, this record is crammed to the brim. It's so
overflowing that one might think there's no space left for music. But
there you'd be mistaken. The opulent cornucopia of melodic depth and
artful arrangement that Gropper, or rather Get Well Soon, pours forth
at the willing listener is not only absolutely record-breaking but also
full of such beauty, maturity and majestic dignity that it seems truly
overwhelming at first. 'Vexations' has turned out to be a worthy
successor to a wonderful debut. An artistically outstanding and
endlessly rich creation that, despite reaching a whole new level
sonically, doesn't aim at singles, the radio or the charts, it stoically
and effortlessly continues to do exactly what Get Well Soon have
always done: to reach out to people and touch their souls!)
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