Revered Finnish composer and musician Lauri Porra has released the beautiful track ‘Consciousness’, as a new single taken from his forthcoming album Matter And Time, out on April 19th and available to pre-order here.
‘Consciousness’ is a lusciously orchestrated pop song, soaring and dreamlike with atmospheric guitars, swelling strings and euphoric brass. It features the singer Ringa Manner, lending her gracefully emotional vocals to profound questions about the nature of consciousness, exploring the idea of the awakening mind, the realisation of self and the search for meaning.
Was it a single moment
Was it an eternity
Will somebody remember to read my memoirs
Will you make sure the world remembers me
What becomes of me, a falling tree
Am I just another chaotic event
See I’ve put everything in order
And built a fortress for myself
We’ve invented love, invented sorrow
We’ve invented solitude
There’s nothing really to be afraid of
We’ve invented other stories too
The centrepiece of Matter And Time, ‘Consciousness’ is part of the album’s 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.
Ringa Manner is the featured vocalist on a number of the album’s tracks, alongside the actor, author and broadcaster Stephen Fry. As an acclaimed vocalist under her own name, Ringa also releases music under the pseudonym The Hearing taking elements from modern Scandinavian pop, techno and the Helsinki club scene. On ‘Consciousness’ she sings the lyrics of songwriter Paula Vesala while elsewhere on the album Stephen Fry speaks the words of the celebrated astronomer and writer Esko Valtaoja.
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.
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 in fact been narrated by Stephen Fry and 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.
Listen to ‘Beginning’ featuring Stephen Fry here
Watch the video for ‘Requiem Mundi (Matter Is Not The Only Thing That Exists)’ here
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.
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.”
