Svetoslav Karparov

Svetoslav Karparov and his piano can look back on a very long journey, a journey that began in his home city of Sofia in Bulgaria. On his way to Berlin he stopped off in Moscow, St Petersburg, Bucharest and Kiev, presenting a portrait of Soviet-era Khrushchyovka prefabricated housing developments that are often described today as the “settlements of the forgotten” and that still exist in the suburbs of many Eastern European cities. Rich and poor, beautiful and ugly, old and young – these attributes are often to be found close together here. Inspired by these places and filled with a great empathy for the beauty that exists in such hopelessness, Karparov has created a musical diary that is every bit as impressive as a photograph album. He reveals that however dreary these places may seem, they may still be filled with music. Each piece is devoted to a different district or to a street or a building. The pieces, like the cities themselves, are full of contrasts. Slow and altogether depressing sections are found alongside snapshots full of hope, suggesting a time of new departures as well as a sense of melancholy.