Peter Jonatan and Metropole Orkest team up for to take you on a sonic journey with their cinematic Psalms Symphony — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
A true modern symphony in four movements, this album is a journey with layers of classical, jazz and experimental music. Each movement is its own tapestry but the full effect is cohesive and emotive enough to call Psalms Symphony a concept album. “It’s the culmination of my musical styles and inspirations, merging classical and jazz with cinematic influence from film and game scoring, gospels and traditional hymns,” Jonatan says.
Fans of Jonatan’s smooth yet complex style will find Psalms Symphony a perfect melding of classical structure with swing jazz, hearkening back to the golden days of the glamourous compositions of old Hollywood films. Emulating golden age film composers like Max Steiner and Franz Waxman, but with loads of modern twists a la Philip Glass, it’s a good thing Jonatan has a world-class pops orchestra performing these compositions; only the most accomplished musicians, from strings to horns to conductor, could pull off these massive-scale pieces. Jonatan himself plays piano with the complexity of a virtuoso, so it only stands to reason that his compositions should match.
If Jonatan wasn’t already a huge presence in the worlds of classical music, jazz and musical academia, Psalms Symphony would definitely put him on the map, as this album shows what is really possible with classical techniques, modern technology and proper ear training.
In the modern classical and jazz worlds, they don’t come much more decorated than composer and pianist, Jonatan. A piano prodigy from the age of four when he began playing in his native Jakarta, Indonesia, Jonatan obtained a doctorate of musical arts in jazz studies from the prestigious New England Conservatory, where is now a professor, as well as an associate professor at Berklee College of Music in Boston. His teachings focus on ear training and he has a number of podcasts on that and other techniques on his YouTube channel. Jonatan’s work has been performed by the Prague and Budapest symphony orchestras, as well as with Lake Street Dive with NEC Jazz Orchestra, and Philharmonia Strings, just to name a few.
Check out Psalms Symphony below and find Peter Jonatan on his website, Facebook and Instagram.
