‘WHITE NIGHT’ is out now on all platforms.
“White Night” is based on three poems by legendary Russian poet Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966), with Pankovits’ own lyrics condensing them into two verses. The poems range from Akhmatova’s first book of poems, published in 1912: Vecher (Evening), to work from the 1960s, a few years before her death.
The three poems are about parting, loss, and memory, sometimes bittersweet, the complexity of love and its end and remembering it or anticipating remembering it.
Plaintive trumpet and piano set the mood for a beautiful mid-tempo ballad that can stand, musically and lyrically and vocally, with the best of Joni Mitchell’s and Sade’s relationship ruminations. It’s jazz yet also beyond genre—an adult pop song. Trumpet obligatos shadow the vocal like memory commenting on/reacting to the actual events. The song’s four-and-a-half minutes fly by, squeezing a wealth of emotion into a short, easily flowing structure of masterful songwriting and arrangement.
“White Night” is being released on the 58th anniversary of Akhmatova’s death.
lyrics
LYRICS:
There will be thunder then. Remember me.
You’ll say ‘ She asked for storms.’
The entire world will turn the color of crimson stone,
and your heart as then, will turn to fire.
That day, in Moscow, a true prophecy,
when for the last time I say goodbye,
soaring to the heavens that I longed to see,
leaving my shadow here in the sky.
See that dark house again.
Only one candle glows,
A yellow, complacent, flame.
See, how the fields die down,
In the sunset gloom of firs,
I still hear the echo of your voice
That day, in Moscow, a true prophecy,
when for the last time I say goodbye,
soaring to the heavens that I longed to see,
leaving my shadow here in the sky.
Lyrics by Nikolett Pankovits
Based on poems by Anna Akhmatova: Moscow trefoil: Almost into the album, White Night, Song of the Last Meeting
credits
released March 5, 2024
Nikolett Pankovits – voice
Josh Deutsch – trumpet
Juancho Herrera – guitar
Manu Koch – piano
Bam Rodriguez – upright bass
Franco Pinna – drums
Music by Nikolett Pankovits
Lyrics by Nikolett Pankovits – based on poems by Anna Akhmatova: Moscow trefoil: Almost into the album, White Night, Song of the Last Meeting
RECORDED BY
Marc Urselli at Eastside Sound Studio, New York City
MIXED AND MASTERED BY
Dave Darlington at Bass Hit Recording, New York City
PRODUCER
Nikolett Pankovits
DESIGNER
Dragana/Aleksandar
PHOTO BY
Tímea Jaksa