New Beginning: Joep Beving Presents a Richly Orchestrated Composition
Known for his solo piano recordings, streamed over 330 million times to date, Joep Beving explores new musical territory in his latest track, Post. He developed the work with colleagues from the worlds of both music and film. Five years in the making, Post evolved organically, its purpose emerging over time and through the collaborative process. The final pieces fell into place when Beving joined forces with writer-director Hugo Keijzer and production company MikeTeeVee to create a moving short film set to and inspired by his music. Beving’s original eight-minute work will be released by Deutsche Grammophon as an e-single on 21 April, with Keijzer’s film premiering on the label’s YouTube channel on 1 May. In addition, an upbeat Delyrian remix will be released on 5 May, both as a single and alongside the original version as an EP.
Beving spent several years constructing Post’s haunting soundworld. The music begins with an extended introduction for strings (members of Scoring Berlin) which slowly intertwines with parts for piano, synthesizer, percussion (Luke Flowers), ney flute (Tugce Albayrak) and the women of Bulgarian Voices Berlin. The pianist and his collaborators recorded the piece from different locations, using state-of-the-art streaming software.
“I’d already worked on what became the string introduction of Post for my last-but-one album, Henosis,” recalls Joep Beving. “But it felt like a new beginning or something different that didn’t belong on that recording. I didn’t know where it would lead, so it was a bit like running towards a cliff and stopping before just diving over the edge. I experimented with it but wasn’t happy with the results, so I let it be. And then came the Corona pandemic, which gave me an opportunity to develop the song’s ending.”
During lockdown Beving reflected on the many fears eroding the hopes and dreams of countless young adults, and recognised the need to counter existential angst with the consoling power of unconditional love. “While I was thinking about the meaning of Post, so much was happening in the world,” he notes. “That moved me to focus on something that’s affecting kids in so many countries and leaving such a deep mark on their lives. This piece is mostly a message of love and hope.”
It was while Beving was writing the lyrics for Post that the specific story of a mother attempting to convince her child that life is still worth living came to mind. He sent the music and a film treatment to Dutch director Hugo Keijzer (The Occupant), with whom the composer’s ideas instantly resonated. Keijzer created a compelling short film about a mother and her teenage daughter (played by Renáta Martinová and Klara Müller), a vulnerable young person engulfed by the darkness of depression and anxiety.
The film begins by showing the mother taking her troubled child to hospital but deciding that what they both really need is immersion in the natural world, far beyond the unsettling sounds and shadows of the city. It ends with the girl making slow yet beautiful steps towards recovery, resolved when mother and daughter embrace and plunge headlong into a stream, a metaphor for life itself.
“I was very fortunate to cross paths with Hugo Keijzer, who offered to take on the directing role as a passion project and together with MikeTeeVee realised the film, with many investing their time and energy because they believed in the project,” says Beving. “Without them, it wouldn’t have become a reality and I am extremely grateful to all involved!”
The film won awards at both the Liber Films Festival and the Hollywood Blvd Film Festival.
