On Friday, 12 September at 6 pm, we would like to invite you to a concert celebrating the release of The Music of the Return of the Sapieha Palace on vinyl. It will feature the sounds of the palace’s rebirth, recorded and transformed into original ambient works. The live arrangements will be performed by Laurynas Kamarauskas, Matas Samulionis, and Vytautas Oškinis. Saxophone and flute improvisations will be paired with soft, subtle layers of sounds created from fragments of the palace’s acoustics and its revival process.
Today, it might difficult to imagine that in 2023, the Sapieha Palace was an intensive, noisy construction site, echoing with sawing, drilling, hammering, and other rather abrasive sounds. With clouds of dust filling the air, many hands were at work, some labouring with jeweller’s precision, others almost perfectly synchronised, all guided by caring hearts. It took many days for the palace to awake from its slumber, but now it is all part of its history.
The music of the palace’s return was born in this waking-up process: a narrative of sounds where we hear the sifting of pebbles, the flow of water, the clatter of hammers echoing in space, the scratching of restorers’ scalpels, the crumbling of plaster, the sound of distant footsteps and coughs. All these moments are lost in time but alive in sound. The sound works have been given evocative titles, such as Cornice, Dust, Scalpel, and Operating Room. Each instrumental piece weaves a unique narrative about the place and its spaces, exploring its interior acoustics and the ambient sounds of construction work.
Concert duration: 1 hour. Free admission. Location: ground floor, South Gallery. The vinyl record Sapiegų rūmų sugrįžimo muzika (The Music of the Return of the Sapieha Palace) will be available for purchase during the event.
Composer: Laurynas Kamarauskas
Saxophone: Matas Samulionis
Flute: Vytautas Oškinis
Concept and Execution: Viktorija Mištautaitė, Gintautė Žemaitytė
Mastering: Lukas Jankauskas
Graphic Design: Jonė Miškinytė
Cover Art: Audrius Solominas
Communication: Karolina Augevičiūtė, Giedrė Ivanova, Luka Jefremovaitė
Copy editing: Dangė Vitkienė
Manufacturing: Green Lakes Pressing
Sponsor: UAB Ekstra statyba (the palace restoration contractor, whose team is heard working in the recordings)