Mathieu Karsenti pieces together a hypnotic & emotional EP, "Mirages"
There’s something almost radical about a record that strips everything back to the raw elegance of stringed wood. Enter Mirages, the latest EP from the endlessly inventive composer Mathieu Karsenti — a masterclass in tension, texture, and emotion delivered through the haunting voice of three solo violins.
From the opening moments, Mirages feels less like a conventional recording and more like stepping into a living, breathing sound painting. Karsenti, long celebrated for his work scoring for picture and crafting genre-defying solo projects, approaches music with the precision of a visual artist, and nowhere is that clearer than here. Inspired by the transient nature of optical illusions and visual trickery, this three-part suite blurs the line between form and feeling, guiding the listener through a constantly shifting sonic landscape where clarity and disorientation coexist in exquisite harmony.
At the heart of Mirages is a beautiful bit of serendipity: a 2024 encounter between Karsenti and concert violinist Helena Maria Falk, who brings a centuries-old instrument — a violin with over 300 years of history etched into its grain — to the sessions. The result is nothing short of revelatory. There’s a warmth, a spectral clarity to Falk’s tone that acts as a grounding force amidst the EP’s layered counterpoints and elegantly tangled melodies. The interplay between the three violin voices creates moments of delicate tension and ecstatic release, each phrase rising and falling like mirage waves over a heat-baked horizon.
Karsenti draws liberally from Impressionism, minimalism, and echoes of Baroque-era counterpoint, yet never feels bound by any tradition. This is music that acknowledges its lineage while fearlessly pushing forward. At times, the piece unfurls with the delicacy of Debussy’s string quartets; elsewhere, it dances with the meditative, interwoven lines of Steve Reich’s early work. And yet the overall effect is uniquely Karsenti — evocative, bold, and deeply human.
It’s not just the composition itself that impresses, but the production. Karsenti’s decision to helm every aspect of this release — from orchestration to cover art — ensures a singular vision runs through every detail. The recording is intimate and alive, with every breath of bow on string captured in tactile detail. It’s a work made for headphones, where you can close your eyes and lose yourself in the physicality of the sound: the scrape of a string, the space between notes, the barely perceptible shifts in Falk’s vibrato.
Clocking in at just under 11 minutes, Mirages is a concise statement, but one that lingers far beyond its runtime. It’s a rare thing for instrumental music to feel this narratively rich, to make you feel without guiding you with lyrics or overt cues. The drama, the suspense, the aching beauty — it’s all embedded in the dialogue between these three violins, their lines converging and fracturing like heat haze on a distant road.
As with much of Karsenti’s work, this is music that rewards repeated listening. Each pass reveals new details, hidden motifs, and emotional colors. One listen might leave you with a sense of melancholy reflection, another might feel like a sunlit reverie. That open-endedness, that invitation to personal interpretation, is part of what makes Mirages so special.
Mirages demands and deserves your full attention. It’s a bold, meditative, and beautifully crafted testament to Mathieu Karsenti’s singular voice as a composer. It’s cinematic, filmesque, and downright charming once you really dig in. Obviously, we urge you all to get into it, follow along, and stay tuned for more from this unbelievably talented artist.
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