Aistis - 'Caviar For Seagulls'.
The artist that scripts sentimental, transfiguring, heart-swelling music and never fits in one box at a time, Aistis is out with the instrumental interpretive dance that is ‘Caviar For Seagulls’.
Despite being only sixty-three seconds long, ‘Caviar For Seagulls’ offers longtime fans of the Montreal-based artist and brand new listeners alike an instrumental interlude; something different from his previous works but still retains that signature Aistis mark of the eclectic and original.
Entering: a cacophony of bright horns floods the atmosphere into a smooth, sensual processional movement, indicating that something has been born, dancing solitary for a time, starting a new chapter.
Then, gently, a slew of swarming strings come into being with a noted yet subtle intensity. There’s a tension and also a restless calm.
The two bands of instruments begin to shape a strangely intertwined pirouette – not quite alone and not quite together but somehow connected beyond basic reasoning, at least in terms of musical arrangement. Though somehow – somehow – it makes sense and works together; a cohesion, perhaps. The naturally fuzzy atmospheric tone is barely noticeable in the background but adds something raw and human to the composition.
For an instrumental piece, the duplexity is striking in its similarity and difference; each piece complements the other and sings with its counterpart. As one set of instruments goes up, the other goes down, and they ripple like water. And, sometimes, one tries to break free of the other.
It’s an oddly comforting track in that nostalgic Aistis way, emanating warmth and something of another time and place, like much of his music. He is a true master of creating musical environments that allow space for his vulnerability, intimacy, and deep mental unlockings – and for his devoted listeners to bask in it, too. This has surely been witnessed in this new single off his album released on 14th February under the same name, Caviar For Seagulls.
This enlightening number offers a momentary resting place for the weary soft jazz lovers among us, like nursing an old forgotten wound with music…but also itching something long-held dormant with its evocative nature. ‘Caviar For Seagulls’ says so much without any words at all, gifting listeners the wisened beauty of simplicity and duality, enmeshed in an unusual embrace, if only for a single minute and three seconds.
Yet another brilliantly composed masterpiece by the Lithuanian-Canadian artist that is Aistis, I find myself missing this song the second it’s over, like an old friend you haven’t seen in a long while.
It’s worth it to check out his album in full, too.
Words by Sydney Kaster
