I composed the piece «Selene» in 2 years (2011-2012), dedicating it to the Russian pianist Yury Favorin. That was the musician who was able to breathe a true life into this challenging and immense score. Technical difficulties relating to its interpretation (such as relying on irrational rhythm, the simultaneous combination of whole rhythmic layers, plenty of jumps and virtuoso filigree technique) go far beyond the «traditional» ones, and the magnitude of the piece dictates the need for not only their internal reflection, but a simply highest physical endurance.

During the daily writing process, I was not thinking about any kind of compositional «model» associated with a work of such time scale. For example, it could’ve been either the model of «romantic» or «post-romantic» pianism with its gigantomania and pathos (Franz Liszt, Kaikhosru Sorabji, Michael Finnissy, Richard Barrett, etc.), or about an air of detachment on the musical canvas of the experimental composers (La Monte Young, Morton Feldman, Dennis Johnson, Bryn Harrison). It seemed to me much more important to focus on my inner feelings and on my daily observations of the form that is constructed slowly and whimsically.

This is what I would happily recommend to the potential listener of the piece. It is possible that he or she can also become a witness to the structural and evolutionary process recorded on paper, and now also on physical media as a double CD.

Perhaps this music makes special demands not only to the interpreter, but also to the audience. The duration of the piece it is about 2.5 hours with a concentrated and slowly unfolding dramaturgy of the classical type. Sharp changes of the dynamics and collisions are then replaced by long static zones, generating an «acoustic relief» which is unwrapping in time, turning into a huge climax. All this requires our utmost attention and sensitivity of the internal focus on our feelings. Those properties are the ones that are so deficient in our vain while… Alexey Sysoev