Austrian musician Gerald Krampl's latest disc, 31 Projects is his own personal requiem composed for the victims of the WWII holocaust. After Krampl was approached unexpectedly by a friend, he took on the unexpected task of writing the accompanying music for an internet multimedia project as a means of educating people on the horrors of the holocaust.
The music is primarily solo piano pieces with added electronic textures which paint a very bleak and sparse aural picture for the mind. The black and white cover photo of a concentration camp in the winter gives a good indication of the sound of the music contained within. However it's once you visit the multimedia webpage (www.31projects.at) where the listener can actually view the desolate and sometimes graphic photos set to Krampl's music that the emotions really begin to rise to the surface. Not all of the pictures feature music and the ones that do usually only feature a portion of the complete song. I would recommend visiting the website and queuing up the whole CD from beginning to end for maximum effect. It's once the images are set to Krampl's stark and haunting score that the project's impact increases dramatically.
The music and graphic's will not be everyone's cup of tea but whether used as a tool for continuing education or just on it's own, Krampl's music will most certainly stir up some strong feelings for the listener. Within the extreme sadness of the overall subject matter, there is some absolutely stunning music and for that reason alone 31 Projects is a worthy purchase.
Track Listing
1) Arrival
2) Prisoners Parade
3) Sorrows Call
4) Deathtrains
5) Hopeless
6) Danse Macabre
7) Elegy
8) Losing Ground
9) Tristesse
10) Crematory
11) Narcotic
12) Forgotten Children
13) Industrial Slavery
14) Requiem
15) In Memory
16) A New Dawning
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