Stardust
Meredi
“We are stardust,” sang Joni Mitchell in her famous 1970 tune, “Woodstock”. Mitchell wasn’t an astrophysicist but her lyrics did grasp something scientific and universal; that all of us are made of celestial material. Billions of years ago stardust came together to compose our world, and we contain within us today, material that is as old as the universe itself. We are, by design, connected not only to the stars above us, but also to a past that stretches back way before us. But what some of us know by way of learning, others, like Mitchell, understand by intuition only. Such is also the case with the 27-year-old German pianist, Meredi, who has always felt an innate connection to the heavens above her, “When I observe the stars I feel a strong attraction, a warmth, a home,” she explains, “As a kid I wanted to find out where my music was coming from, I always had the feeling that it comes from somewhere else, from the universe somehow.” That inquiry took Meredi to studying astrophysics at an early age, and recently she embarked on a sonic exploration of the subject with Stardust.
Stardust is Meredi`s debut album. It is all melody. Meredi says that the melodies in her head will often play full blast when she feels this unique kind of craving, “There are these special moments, moments with a certain kind of energy, like for example when you see something very beautiful you feel very much this longing, you want to take it, to have it, to be that. You want it so much, that you don’t want to be separate from it.” Her music is a visceral and personal expression but it’s also something external to her. It’s her relation to her surroundings, her connection to her past and generation. Her tracks are as much her compositions, the melodies in her head, as they are compositions of and about her time.
Every track in Stardust seems to be connected by a nostalgic yearning for something that wasn’t fully consummated or lived. The music, an ode to Sehnsucht – an energy which is within us but also all around us. All of us desire different things, but desire itself seems ubiquitous. A source which like the sun fuels our pursuits. “Don’t forget to look at the sky,” says composer and pianist. Stardust is Meredi, but it’s also her relation to her surroundings, her connection to her past and her memories, both personal as well as shared. Her tracks are as much her compositions, the melodies in her head, as they are compositions of her circumstance which stretch back way before her. Stardust, the album and the matter, connects the personal to the collective, the earthly to what lies beyond.
About the Artist (Read more)
Meredi always knew she wanted to compose.The27-year-old’s introduction to music didn’t come via the allure of glittery stages or the hedonistic lifestyle of rockstars, but rather out of pure need to express herself. Today, the world seems to overlook composers (let alone female ones), making a career in the field risky to say the least, but Meredi didn’t have a choice. She knew she had to get those melodies she heard in her head out into the world, “I was about nine when I found out that my friends didn’t have this kind of experience of music playing out in their heads, these trance-like moments.” Stardust is Meredi’s debut album, and a collection of early and more recent music.
Meredi’s certainty towards composition, and an old piano which lingered at her home’s hallway, meant she had an early start, “I don’t really remember when I started to compose, it feels like the music was always in my head and I just learned how to bring it to live,” she reminisces, “The piano was always my island or retreat.” The pastime developed into a passion, the passion uncovered a talent, and soon enough Meredi was studyingmusic and composition at university
While developing her technical abilities, Meredi had always felt her studies to be a constraining experience, “I felt limited and overwhelmed with prejudices and rules. It was about reaching the mind, not the heart,” recalls Meredi. Her classes, although useful, lacked the emotional energy she searched for in music. The trance of nightclub goers was alluring to her, much more than the coldness and stiffness of those in concert halls. “The party scene in Berlin was very fascinating to me. I went to lots of techno clubs and the energy in these clubs… again, this kind of longing that the crowd felt was so mesmerizing to me.” A youthful sense of freedom, as well as a cosmopolitan grasp of different cultures can be felt subtly throughout Stardust. Take a track like Circles in the Skyfor instance, which superimposes a simple, stripped-down melody over such a punctual bass line that it almost feels electronic.
Notice how the peaks of intense emotion in Crane,could have come straight out of the chorus of a pop tune, “I never thought in genres, for me it was always about what I felt when I listened to a song,” she says.But while Stardust captures the infinite possibilities of Meredi’s generation, it also manifests something of the longing, and some-times alienation, caused by these circumstances. In listening to Stardust, it is clear how much the feeling of longing has inspired Meredi. Every track seems to be connected by a nostalgic yearning for something that wasn’t fully consummated or lived. Maredi says that the melodies in her head will often play full blast when she feels this unique kind of craving, “There are these special moments, moments with a certain kind of energy, like for example when you see something very beautiful you feel very much this longing, you want to take it, to have it, to be that. You want it so much, that you don’t want to be separate from it.”Stardustembodies Meredi’s desire and need to compose. It’s a visceral and personal expression but it’s also something external to her. It’s her relation to her surroundings, her connection to her past and generation. Meredi’s tracks are as much her compositions, the melodies in her head, as they are compositions of and about her time. Stardust, the album and the matter, connects the personal to the collective.