Who are you and where are you from? What made you start your band/project? Do you have a musical education?

First of all, I’d like to express my gratitude for your interest in my work and for giving me the chance to be heard. It's always inspiring! My name is Kaia Levanovich, and I am a composer of Slavic origin based in the UK and partly in Poland. I refer to myself as a "composer" because that's what it says on my diploma, and some of the greats have given me that title (smiles). Yes, my musical journey began in early childhood—from playing the violin and piano to immersing myself in classical art, then through a solid jazz school, ethnic and experimental avant-garde trends, musicology, and naturally culminating in academic classical composition. But the most important education, I think, came from the intellectual milieu I was lucky enough to be a part of, as well as from everything that passed through my inner world during my formative years—brilliantly composed sheet music, literature, philosophical conversations with my teachers... At a certain point, all the meanings converged on making music and creativity. I was no longer interested in transmitting someone else's idea; the idea was inside me and needed to be expressed.

How would you describe your music? What would be the basic idea behind it? Can you write a bit about (some of your) albums and their sound and conceptual background and the history of it all?

This is a very valid question in the context of musical art in general. The idea (I would use the more precise philosophical term "logos") is the meaning for which music is created and through which it is expressed. In itself, every work carries the meanings encoded within it. They are different, but they are there; there is no such thing as great and empty music. It's always the logos. My early academic compositions were imbued with Gospel concepts. For example, using the Aramaic alphabet, the text of the Gospel was arranged in a certain sequence, each letter was given a sound, and several texts ran in parallel layers (in different groups of soloists and performers). When I work with an ethnic concept, I build the geometry of the sound according to traditional thinking about the binarity of things and phenomena (winter - summer, light - darkness). I emphasise the duality of the feminine and the masculine (voices), which intertwine during the procession, the performance, and the movement, creating a single sonic space. In film music, the tasks are different; the composer embodies the idea and concept of the director. For instance, when we worked on the documentary about Kazimir Malevich's "Black Square" ("UNOVIS"), through sound, I represented the concept of the artist’s work as a strategy of his art. The music here is like painting, and the technique of composing is like painting with dotted strokes of pure colours.

What about your own musical preferences? What do you listen to and how does it compare to what you play in your band/project?

I can honestly say that for some time now, my preference has been to listen to silence (smiles). I am inspired by many things, and it can be a genre of music that is completely foreign to me, but I always enjoy anything tasteful, talented, and professional. It's fascinating. I only divide music into two categories: bad and good. I fill my space with the good stuff that inspires me. A space of silence and beauty. Lately, I've been going to a lot of classical music concerts in London; it's like a full-time job because there are concerts almost every day (smiles). There are a lot of beautiful halls with great architecture and acoustics, and many interesting people come—it's all food for the soul. I confess that there was a certain period in my journey when I cut out any influences and isolated myself from listening to other people's music. It was a period of searching for my own style.

What genre does your music fit in? Compared to the mainstream radio music, how does your music fit into this?

I'm an academic composer and I'm close to classical genres, but I'm mostly connected with cinema, so my music has a cinematic touch.

What equipment do you use for your music?

It's a whole complex of software and equipment that I use in symbiosis, which enables me to create an orchestra with a new sound. I play "live" acoustic timbres, and in this respect, my experience working with live orchestras and performers helps me—I can feel anything that’s out of tune. Nowadays, a composer can "play" a Stradivarius violin (you can hear it in my recently released Intermezzo for strings) or, for example, "play the sound of Joshua Bell's violin." I really like mixing timbres and creating new sounds; it's a kind of impressionism in music. Musicians often argue about their perfect pitch or lack of it, making themselves into a separate caste, but I would say that timbre hearing is more important for a composer. Perfect pitch is good for learning; in earlier times (eras) of composing it allowed you to plagiarise and "take themes out of the room" after the premiere of a piece of music (smiles). As for the sound, in the best and purest version, it would be a mixture of recordings of real performers and digital sounds based on programs, plus processing; it all affects the purity of perception. The modern Mozart is a conductor-programmer (smiles).

My magazine is about bands that have received no or hardly any attention of Bandcamp so far. Why do you think people have hardly bought your music since its release? If you have to point to some reasons which would these be? Have you had more success on other platforms?

Firstly, I think I'm a bad manager (smiles), and I didn't set out to sell on this platform. Although I'll be honest - it's a big flaw—I'm still operating without any advertising. On the other hand, I am well aware that I am not creating a mass product. Although listeners write to me personally, wishing I could be heard by a wider audience. This gives me inner strength. Sometimes performers (who have fully experienced my music letting it flow through them) share their impressions - this is priceless and gives me a reason to keep going.

What keeps you going or has you band/project ceased to be?

Music is part of my nature - and it's impossible to escape, although I've tried and failed (smiles). I have no support in the literal sense. As one of the greats once said, "The only meaning of a man's life is to perfect his immortal foundation." For me, the instrument of this perfection is music and art, it is culture and spirituality. A person with a good heart, a high moral level, a person of culture, who can accommodate Mozart and Schopenhauer in his soul, is spiritual. However, as is the case today, professional art has always needed support. Think of the genius Bach and perhaps the happiest period of his professional activity under the patronage of his benefactor, when he worked non-stop and created most of his secular works. Although there have been lucky ones in the history of music, such as Rossini, who was popular in his lifetime, He was financially stable by the age of forty, left music altogether, and "went out to enjoy life" by cooking (smiles).

Three reasons people should be interested in your music.

Let me rephrase the question: Why should people be interested in music at all? But I'm pretty sure the best answer would be given by Pythagoras (smiles), who said that through music we can directly comprehend the structure of this world. Music is not only food for our brain and soul; similar to any other art, it is a trigger for abstract and creative thinking; it forms special neural connections by activating different types of thinking; and it enriches us spiritually. The whole universe of ingenious music has already been created and is available to every one of us, and I wish that everyone would be able to immerse themselves in this infinite world. Unfortunately, there is still a large number of people who plunge into the vanity and emptiness of this world, who do not suspect and do not think about this parallel universe, and a vast, divine, spiritual layer of life passes them by. To such people I would say, in the language of a modern psychoanalyst, "Problems in life and work»? — Listen to Bach!". "Are you depressed and anxious? — Put on some Vivaldi music" (smiles).

Where can people find your music?

All you have to do is type my name into a search engine and find me. Basically, I post music for films in the public domain and position myself in the media space as a film composer, although I have a lot of academic music and unperformed scores – perhaps their time has not yet come.