Jonathan Fitas – ‘A Quiet Place’ Review

What does Jonathan Fitas sound like?

Neoclassical compositions with a sprinkle of French curiosity.

The review of ‘A Quiet Place’ by Jonathan Fitas

For his latest EP ‘A Quiet Place’, French neoclassical composer Jonathan Fitas turned to Debussy and Bartók for inspiration. The idea was to capture that moment between sleep and wake. For Fitas, Debussy’s ‘Préludes’ and Bartók’s ‘Romanian Folk Songs’ capture that essence. What I love about this tidy, short collection of five tracks is how pensive and ambiguous Jonathan’s compositions are. Often, dreamlike states are serene and calming, but here there is a majesty to the piano and violin pieces that hints at a world of wonder and murky unknowns.

‘When Thoughts Turn To Dreams’ opens with a pacy, questioning chord pattern. The violin joins halfway through but refuses to draw full notes. Instead, it focuses on luminous beams of dissonant string hair pulls that remind me of light hitting the floor through a window. Jonathan Fitas plays with curiosity here that sets up the whole release to be a delicate balance of beauty and majesty. ‘Elegy (for Violin & Piano)’ follows in a sombre tone. The slower nature of the piano and the general melancholic mood of the track let the violin sing. The violin bends and weeps over the keys without ever feeling overwrought. By contrast, the short burst of energy that is ‘Pasithea’s Garden’ is a hubbub of skipping piano and vibrant violin. It could score an emotional indie movie with ease. Whilst there is a lot of energy, the recording has a muted in-room feel to it. The piano is soft throughout, although it’s not quite at felt piano levels. Its lack of low end and softer high end forces any energetic track to feel like it’s fighting against the tide. There’s a less-is-more approach throughout the EP that doesn’t skimp on melody, and I truly appreciate the delicate balance.

Pensive, broken piano chords led the way with ‘Dying Stars + Last Glow’. Like the opening track, this is a song of two halves. The first is a searching, lost, and unsure piano piece. When the violin joins, things become sadder, as the lilting violin arrangement drapes pained two-note rise-and-falls over the piano as if something feels futile. The ambiguity of beauty and sadness is something I find French composers do incredibly well, and Fitas pulls it off sensitively. The closing track is a dreamy piano ambient piece. ‘Afterlight (Asleep Version)’ is a soft, cosy, and pillowy piano motif with long tail curls of ambient effects and sound refractions flitting off into the distance. This is often what other composers only stick to when composing about falling asleep. Dreamy. Warming and inviting. It’s one for the headphones.

In and out in just 13 minutes, ‘A Quiet Place’ is short but expertly crafted. There is no filler, no dragging it out, and each track feels like a different stage of wonder. Instead of thinking of this as a guide to sleeping and dreaming, think of it as an overacting mind learning to calm down and shut off. Then the sleep will come. I particularly appreciate the violin arrangement in this collection, as no two songs use the violin in the same manner or timbre. A quiet hidden gem.

Recommended track: Pasithea’s Garden

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