Atlas of Imaginary Places

Marina Baranova knows a thing or two about conjuring fantastical worlds. Since her childhood when she'd sit with her fairy tale books open in front of the piano translating the pictures she saw into sound worlds up to her last album, where she envisioned a darker side to Debussy, the Ukrainian composer and pianist's imagination has always played an active role in the music she plays. For her latest release, Atlas of Imaginary Places, she let's it run the show. For it, Baranova worked with the Danish visual artist Christian Gundtoft and Ukrainian writer Volodymyr Kompaniets to conceive more than just an album. They worked independently from each other, only having Baranova's untitled music as the starting point for their own creations. The 17 tracks on the album, however, contained enough material for the artists to delve into, Baranova's music is after all known for it's vivid imagery that immediately conveys intense pictures, emotions and storylines, and the pianist has said in the past she "sees" sounds as colors. Like glimpses of an unknown archipelago seen through layers of mist, Baranova's sound world is a spectacular setting that reveals itself slowly to listeners. Atlas of Imaginary Places is proof that our imagination is in fact a portal, and beyond it exist places that can be accessed and shared by all. The intimacy and synchronicity between the artists in creating Atlas of Imaginary Places made it seem like they "shared an island", a magical space Baranova is now inviting others to explore too. It isn't a linear journey, rather it delineates a space outside time that can be explored in an infinite number of ways. On a first listen, one might appreciate the vastness of the landscapes painted, and on another, ponder the depth of it's minute details.