Revered Finnish composer and musician Lauri Porra has today released his spectacular new album Matter And Time. Scored for narrator, large orchestra, choir, electric ensemble and vocal soloist, Matter And Time finds Porra bringing together an array of musical influences to create a hugely ambitious work, in both scope and sound. Listen to the album here.
Matter And Time features broadcasting legend Stephen Fry as the narrator, speaking the words of the celebrated astronomer and writer Esko Valtaoja, over a dramatic and stirring orchestral accompaniment, displayed to glorious effect on the eight and a half minutes of ‘Evolution’, which sits at the heart of the album.
“This ambitious concept piece which uses modern classical, psychedelia and pop to tell the story of the universe and human-kind [ranges] from delicate and demure to yearning, powerful and primal, it’s standing ovations all round by the tumultuous end” – Prog Magazine
“Porra renders our galactic history through a series of ambitious and striking orchestral arrangements. The experience feels distinctly cinematic [as] lulling harmonies tell a story, capturing a feeling through music… Strings, drums and vocal melodies complement a narrative rooted in wonder” – Aesthetica Magazine
At times reminiscent of the work of Vangelis, Jean Michel Jarre, John Williams or Hans Zimmer, Matter And Time creates a sense of narrative and atmosphere as if Jeff Wayne’s War Of The Worlds had been based around a scientific treatise on the nature of the cosmos instead of an alien invasion. Woven through this cinematic score are moments that bring to mind the likes of Björk, Sigur Rós, Dead Can Dance and even Kate Bush at her most cosmic.
The album acts as a musical love letter to the universe, taking us on a voyage from the very beginnings of the universe, the birth of the carbon atom and the first murmurings of life on earth. Over the course of its ten tracks we travel through the lifespan of our solar system and hundreds of billions of years onward as the universe starts to die. What survives us is the love we have for one another—spelt out in binary ones and zeros. Science and human experience in perfect harmony.
Originally composed in 2018, Matter And Time was commissioned and premiered by Finland’s Vantaa Orchestra, conducted by Dalia Stasevska, and draws on many of Porra’s musical influences, from rock and pop to cinema, and the great orchestral scores of the 20th century. In 2024 it is now released in recorded form for the very first time.
Listen to ‘Beginning’ ft Stephen Fry here
Watch the lyric video for ‘Consciousness’ ft Ringa Manner here
Watch ‘Requiem Mundi (Matter Is Not The Only Thing That Exists)’ here
In addition to being a hugely respected orchestral composer, and a direct descendent of the legendary composer Sibelius, Lauri Porra is well-known to rock and metal audiences around the world as the bass-player in the ‘power-metal’ band Stratovarius, with whom he has recorded six albums and performed concerts in over 50 countries.
“I always think of music as a toolbox,” says Porra of his diverse musical background in classical, rock, metal, jazz and film music. “People create sound to evoke a reaction – that is the basis of music. It doesn’t change because of its style or purpose, or because of where the music is made. For me, all music is the same.”