Neo-romance

'Neo-Romance' is an album by the French-Canadian pianist and composer Alexandra Stréliski. Intrigued by the Romanticism, the romantics, and their 'super dark' relationship to nature, Stréliski - long considering herself a neo-romantical composer rather than a neo-classical one - wondered what 'the ancient past, and all these big romantic themes' meant in this modern world we've created. 'How do you stay in that imaginary world in these disillusioned, intimidating times we're living through? That was the premise and setting for the album.' While composing and recording in Europe for the first time, she also worked with several new musicians and collaborators and explored her family's past. The songs were written mainly in Rotterdam, where Stréliski moved to be with her partner. And in doing so, she discovered some surprising - and prescient - facts about her past, her family's varied origins and her ancestors' penchant for art and creativity. Such notions of collective identity and shared history resonated deeply and were compounded by the forced separations and feelings of isolation brought on by pandemic lockdowns. Folded into her nascent musical ideas, 'Néo-Romance' took shape, the songs coming 'from a very deep, very personal space' but expressing something much more significant. ''Néo-Romance' is more about imagining things and telling stories,' she says. 'To lose yourself whilst listening.'