Hear Serj Tankian’s 24-Minute Piano Concerto ‘Disarming Time’
Serj Tankian has shared a 24-minute instrumental titled “Disarming Time: A Modern Piano Concerto,” a portion of a classical composition that the System of a Down frontman worked on during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“When quarantine hit and all our projects and releases were canceled, I started itching for a musical challenge. One night sitting in bed looking through different voice memos on the iPhone I realized I have this huge trove of short, special, unrealized musical ideas,” Tankian said of the piece in a statement (via Blabbermouth).
“Right then the thought of creating an epic piece utilizing them all made me smile. So I recorded them all and started arranging the instrumentation to create this incredibly unique musical experience. I mean, who the fuck listens to 24 minutes of music as one piece today? We’re about to find out.”
A version of “Disarming Time: A Modern Piano Concerto” — with poetry — will feature on Tankian’s upcoming Cool Gardens Poetry Suite, a collection of four classical compositions over which Tankian recites 87 poems; Tankian previously shared “Cinematic Piano Theme” from the project, which is “coming soon”:
In 2020, Tankian released his solo EP Elasticity in concert with a documentary about the singer, Truth to Power. System of the Down also reunited for their first new music in 15 years, “Protect the Land” and “Genocidal Humanoidz.”
