Bistrot Of Art: "I let Oman’s nights inspire my music"

Bistrot of Art is the moniker of a British Neoclassical composer born in 1989. His work is inspired by travels across the Middle East and Scandinavia, as well as his study of French art history. He began playing piano at 16 and quickly moved into composition. A creative period in Dubai led to several pieces influenced by the Arabian night sky. The composer often takes extended breaks from writing to gather inspiration and explore other pursuits, returning with fresh ideas and renewed energy. During a holiday in Nice, he experienced another burst of creativity, completing drafts for multiple EPs.

Your new single was inspired by getting lost in a dry riverbed in Oman under a starry sky. How did you transform that intense mix of fear and wonder into an instrumental composition?

The piece was inspired by a hotel in Oman, the Alila resort Jabal Akhdar, which is sort of perched on a mountainside in a remote area. One thing I noticed about the place was that it was deathly quiet, you could hear sounds from miles away. This gave me the idea of an atmospheric piece about people being able to communicate over long distances, thus the title Gravity. But I also wanted to call it something that was reminiscent of the stars that were so visible on that night, so I added the starry night part of the title. It also reminded me of the Vincent Van Gogh painting with the same title. I was living in Dubai at that time for work and I spent a lot of time in a cafe near where I lived at the Rove hotel in Dubai marina and I started playing with an idea of using the celesta and harp and piano together in a composition. It had a sort of celestial feel to it, which I think reflected that special evening in Oman.

The pieces were originally written in 2018 and lost due to a broken hard drive. How did you recover or reconstruct these drafts, and how did your memory of the original experience influence the final track?

I had uploaded the drafts that I had written in the cafe to Soundcloud, but I never made them public. I just kept them there with other drafts. I don’t know why I did this, but I was just so focused on work and other things in life that I didn’t feel like I was ready to share them with anyone. It has taken nearly 8 years for me to reach the mental place where I am ready to share these drafts to Spotify. I also have a forthcoming album of piano work which I am releasing later this year, of new work which I have written since I was living in the Middle East and moved back home to the UK.

The title "Gravity, or the starry night above Oman" is very evocative. Can you explain how "gravity" and the sight of the star-filled sky are reflected in the structure and atmosphere of the music?

Well originally I had planned to write it as a song, but I do not have the talent of writing lyrics and do not know any singers, so there were two major obstacles to doing that. Instead I wrote it as an instrumental piece with the piano, harp and celesta playing the melody that I intended to have for a singer. The structure of the piece is really leading to the last third of the piece, where there is a modulation in the key to an emotional climax. This originally was going to be singing, but due to the problems I mentioned I made it an instrumental piece.

Your music is described as neoclassical, influenced by travels in the Middle East, Scandinavia, and French art history. How do these experiences come together in this single, and which cultural elements did you aim to convey through the composition?

Well I was in Dubai at the time, I spent several years living in the city for work and one thing that is absolutely beautiful about the Middle East in general are the warm evenings where families come out in their pristine, very elegant clothes and there is the delightful smell of oud perfume in the air and they gather for dinner at the many restaurants. You can also hear the sound echoing from the city’s many mosques (I am a Christian, by the way) and it leads to this absolutely divine evening atmosphere. Dubai holds a special place in my heart, very different to the influencers lifestyle that it has become associated with. It is a place of culture and a creative place too.

After periods of pause and intense creative moments like your trip to Oman, how do you envision your musical journey in upcoming EPs? Are you planning to draw inspiration from more real-life adventures?

I’m writing for piano at the moment, and am living in the UK. I am visiting Scandinavia and Europe more these days so it is a different influence to before. I am looking at writing in a neoclassical, or even minimalist, style these days. I am taking inspiration from all kinds of creatives at the moment; painters, architects, storytellers and just writing at the piano anything that comes to my mind and then working and reworking the ideas over many sessions of improvisation. Then I will finally write something down once I have found something I really like.

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