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Escape

Chamber Works

David Mastikosa composer

Release Date: September 23, 2022
Catalog #: RR8075
Format: Digital
21st Century
Chamber
Solo Instrumental
Piano
Voice

Composer David Mastikosa’s ESCAPE is the work of an ambitious young composer whose skill belies his age. Born in 1992 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mastikosa is currently one of the most active contemporary classical music composers in his home country, and writes music for film and media. ESCAPE features works composed in a variety of styles and arrangements. Poslovice is a chamber piece inspired by old Serbian folk proverbs and suggests a hidden, tongue-in-cheek storyline. Detune was written specifically to encourage younger pianists to explore the vast soundscapes locked within the instrument. Trichord for Viola and Accordion is purposefully sparse; Mastikosa leaves free space for performers to exercise their own creativity. ESCAPE is both an artistic triumph in its own right and an early milestone in Mastikosa’s promising career.

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Track Listing & Credits

# Title Composer Performer
01 Escape David Mastikosa Māris Rozenfeld, accordion 4:50
02 Poslovice David Mastikosa Radoslava Vorgić Žuržovan, soprano; Marta Dragaš, violin; Milica Svirac, violoncello 5:48
03 Detune David Mastikosa Bartolomej Stanković, piano 4:12
04 Dimensio David Mastikosa Māris Rozenfeld, accordion; Konrad Levicki, violin; Ulijona Pugačiukaitė, violin; Dalia Sakavičiūtė, viola; Arnas Kmieliauskas, violoncello 6:25
05 Drekavac David Mastikosa Snježana Pavićević, piccolo 6:03
06 Ul-la David Mastikosa Andrea Nikolić, violin; MAS String Orchestra 6:48
07 Void David Mastikosa Ensemble Metamorphosis | Saša Mirković, artistic director 8:16
08 Trichord David Mastikosa Saša Mirković, viola; Vladimir Blagojević, accordion 6:29
09 Nucleus Expansion David Mastikosa Balkan Youth Jazz Orchestra; Toni Kitanovski, conductor 5:05

Track No. 3 Detune for Piano released courtesy of Nota Bene Records. ISRC: HRA0V2100123

Track No. 5 Drekavac for Piccolo released courtesy of Metropolis Music Company. ISRC: RS-A16-21-00027

Production: CreArt – Association for the Promotion of Culture and Arts
Creative Producer: Sonja Đurić 
Editing & Mastering: Zoran Nikolić 
Photographer – Album Cover: Janja Bijelić

Special thanks to the City of Banja Luka, Ministry of Education and Culture of Republic of Srpska, and Association of Composers – Musical Creators (AMUS) for the significant and consistent financial support that made this project possible.

Executive Producer Bob Lord

A&R Director Brandon MacNeil
A&R Ivana Hauser

VP of Production Jan Košulič
Audio Director Lucas Paquette

VP, Design & Marketing Brett Picknell
Art Director Ryan Harrison
Design Edward A. Fleming, Morgan Hauber
Publicity Patrick Niland, Aidan Curran

Artist Information

David Mastikosa

Composer

Born in Prijedor, Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992, David Mastikosa is a younger-generation composer. Mastikosa attended the University of Banja Luka, Academy of Arts where he obtained a Bachelor's degree and a Master's degree. The same Academy elected him a Teaching Assistant in 2015, and later a Senior Teaching Assistant at the Department of Musical Theory and Composition in 2020.

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Notes

The work was composed in 2017, during the Composers+ Summer Academy in Lithuania.

The only thing you cannot Escape from is your personality. This has been proven multiple times in many ways. An inability to escape from oneself sometimes is hysterically funny. When you cannot escape, you can at least thoughtfully listen!

– David Mastikosa

This chamber piece was inspired by old Serbian folk proverbs and sayings that could be heard even today. When those folk proverbs and sayings line up together in a meaningful narrative, a humorous story can be read in between the lines.

– David Mastikosa

This composition was written specifically for younger pianists who are interested in making a step into the unknown sound world that exists inside the piano. During the piece, you will hear a short quote from the music of Johann Sebastian Bach.

– David Mastikosa

Dimensio for accordion and string orchestra was composed in 2017, during the Composers+ Summer Academy in Lithuania.

Dimensio (“Dimension” in English) of a space or object is formally defined as the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify any point within it. But, what are musical dimensions? How we can specify space, objects, or time in music? The main point of this piece is to discover a personal approach to those questions and to try to answer them. This very personal experience can be metaphorically extrapolated to self-determination.

– David Mastikosa

This piece was commissioned by Snježana Pavićević, piccolo of Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra.

Drekavac (literally screamer or screecher) is a mythical creature from the mythology of the South Slavs, mostly present in folk tales in Bosnia and Herzegovina. People who believe that they heard the specific sound of this creature describe it in various ways. Their experiences and fears are usually only aural but in almost all stories I have heard, the sound of this creature is characterized by an incredible ability to quickly transform and to move fast in open space.

– David Mastikosa

Ul-la for Violin and String Orchestra was commissioned by VaClaF: Vareš Classic Festival 2017 and dedicated to Andrea Nikolić (violinist and artistic director of the festival).

Sometimes, craftsmanship is opposed or subordinate to a good idea. I would call that the aesthetics of lack of time.

– David Mastikosa

This piece was commissioned by Saša Mirković, artistic director of Ensemble Metamorphosis.

When we think of emptiness, it is usually something without energy, lifeless, and boring. For me, emptiness is quite the opposite. She is self-aware and very alive. There is a rich and diverse sound world which we can notice only when the quality of our focus changes. The state of emptiness is a state without thoughts and polarizations, a state of complete peace, stability and neutrality. Listening to every sustained pedal tone, performers indulge in the colorful spectrum of possibilities offered by their part. To enter the Void, it is necessary for the performers to, within a special state of mind, participate in this composition with all their being. – David Mastikosa

– David Mastikosa

Trichord for Viola and Accordion was commisioned by Saša Mirković and Vladimir Blagojević.

While composing Trichord, for Viola and Accordion, I was guided by the idea that fewer pitches mean more responsibility. In this case, except for me, that responsibility is also taken over by the performers, to whom I left free space in the score, and gave freedom to implement their visions of interpretation. In Trichord, those new performers’ creative ideas and synergy have important status in the construction of a musical flow, especially since musical impulses release creative energy between performers and each performance is slightly different than the previous one.

– David Mastikosa

This piece was written for Balkan Youth Orchestra—a project of Podgorica based Jazz Art Association, funded by Western Balkan Fund. The world premiere took place in the Budo Tomović Cultural & Information Center of Podgorica, Montenegro, on April 29, 2021, as a part of the Jazz Appreciation Month in Montenegro and celebration of International Jazz Day.

– David Mastikosa