Whilst most music with lyrics usually have a clear meaning in place, purely instrumental music always has a way of allowing us to find our own narrative within the song. We create our own relationship with it and, more often than not, transports us back to a moment in our lives where the song fits perfectly, almost like the track was scored for that specific time in your life. We find something that we’d thought we’d forgotten about and the result is a carthatic experience and Mattia Cupelli’s latest single MONO NO AWARE does exactly that.
“It’s about nostalgia – something that was lost and found again,” Cupelli comments speaking about the track. “The concept of my sound is to find a balance between the modern/minimal classical parts, and the progressive electronic elements. Also, I love the unusual sound of ethnic music from around the world. This is why I decided to use the Shakuhachi on this track. I like to incorporate these sounds in my music, merging the ancient world with the modern digital one.”
The title of the track is a Japanese term that means ‘A Pathos of Things’ and that’s exactly what this single was inspired by. The bittersweet feeling of change, realising that we too are changing and won’t be around on this Earth forever. It’s a solemn meaning that the things we remember are no longer there and the ambient production featuring both organic and digital instruments really helps you think about this. It takes you through your life, the changes you’ve gone through, the realisation everything isn’t the same and leaves you questioning things you never thought about before.
