LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Pianist composer Vadim Neselovskyi was born in Odesa, a port city in Ukraine that Russia has repeatedly bombed since launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine four years ago today. That's the subject of his latest album, "Perseverantia."
(SOUNDBITE OF VADIM NESELOVSKYI'S "PERSEVERANTIA")
VADIM NESELOVSKYI: I guess "Perseverantia" is the sound of war. But also, it's the sound of empathy and hope.
FADEL: It's a suite for piano and strings. And it combines classical and jazz.
(SOUNDBITE OF VADIM NESELOVSKYI'S "PERSEVERANTIA")
FADEL: The album takes you on a journey that starts before Russia's assault on February 24, 2022, with a very calm movement. And then comes another called "Tanks Near Kyiv."
(SOUNDBITE OF VADIM NESELOVSKYI'S "TANKS NEAR KYIV")
FADEL: It almost feels like a jump scare, you know, in a horror movie where you're like, wait. What journey are you taking the listener on?
NESELOVSKYI: Music is such a huge part of my life. I'm playing and composing music every day since I'm 5. But those first three weeks, I couldn't do anything. I felt paralyzed. I couldn't even approach piano. And when, three weeks later, I actually did approach piano, the first thing that I started playing subconsciously, were those brutal chords that start "Tanks," the second movement.
(SOUNDBITE OF VADIM NESELOVSKYI'S "TANKS NEAR KYIV")
NESELOVSKYI: And I realized that, you know, this is what I'm going to write about. This is what I feel. This is what I live right now. It's a war in my country. And I felt that instrumental music maybe could deliver a message that words cannot deliver.
FADEL: I wonder if creating this music and playing this music for audiences has helped you work through so many of these different feelings that you've had since this full-scale invasion and this war began and continues.
NESELOVSKYI: We are right now putting together a benefit concert to raise funds for people in Ukraine, who right now don't have warmth and electricity. So this music is my way to process. But it's also my way to help and support my home country in any way I can. And that's...
FADEL: And raise awareness.
NESELOVSKYI: And raise awareness, exactly.
FADEL: I want to talk about "March Passacaglia."
(SOUNDBITE OF VADIM NESELOVSKYI'S "MARCH PASSACAGLIA")
FADEL: What inspired it?
NESELOVSKYI: When Russian soldiers basically executed the whole village outside of Kyiv, which is called Bucha. And for the first time, the images of this unspeakable horror flew around the world.
FADEL: Yeah.
NESELOVSKYI: And I grew up in Odesa. And I grew up basically speaking Russian. And I could not imagine that people who speak the language I grew up speaking could do this to Ukrainians. And "March Passacaglia" is my way to mourn the victims of this unspeakable massacre. It's a very calm piece. It's just one motif that repeats, somebody counted, about 50 times. And on top of this motif, these different layers of strings and piano happen in a very minimalistic way.
(SOUNDBITE OF VADIM NESELOVSKYI'S "MARCH PASSACAGLIA")
FADEL: You know, at the start of the full-scale invasion, my team and I rushed to the border with Ukraine and Poland to try to go in and see what was happening. And I was listening to your single, "Refugees"...
(SOUNDBITE OF VADIM NESELOVSKYI'S "REFUGEES")
FADEL: ...And thinking of just the streams of people coming across the border with what little they could carry to a life of uncertainty, about what was going to happen at home and what they were going to be met with abroad. And I wondered what you were thinking of as you wrote this piece of music.
NESELOVSKYI: Well, you know, in early March, I was already in Germany. And I saw these streams of people arriving at German railway stations.
FADEL: Yeah.
NESELOVSKYI: And there was so much empathy in the air and also so much suffering. And I just couldn't help but see the parallels, that we are seeing these streams of refugees in 2022 that are so reminiscent of the refugee waves during the Second World War. So this movement, "Refugees," is an effort to express that.
(SOUNDBITE OF VADIM NESELOVSKYI'S "REFUGEES")
FADEL: This will come out on a very dark marker of an anniversary, the start of a full-scale invasion with no end in sight still. And you talk about wanting peace in the world. There are so many conflicts also going on at the same time when we look at Sudan, when we look at Gaza, when we look at what's happening in Iran.
NESELOVSKYI: Absolutely.
FADEL: I just wonder, when you think about the world that this is coming into, what you hope for the year ahead.
NESELOVSKYI: You know, to be honest, I was hoping that when I finally get to release "Perseverantia," maybe that the world will be more peaceful. And we understand that this is not the case. The world is becoming crazier and crazier with each new day. I don't know what the next year will bring us. But the little I can do I will be doing. And that is being honest, sharing empathy and awareness and perhaps care for each other, the basic human values through music, as much as it's possible. That's all I can do and hope and pray for better times.
FADEL: That's composer and pianist Vadim Neselovskyi. His new album is "Perseverantia." Thank you so much for your time and for this album.
NESELOVSKYI: Thank you so much.
(SOUNDBITE OF VADIM NESELOVSKYI'S "DANCING AS IF NOTHING EVER HAPPENED") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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