Carles Viarnès Performs Post Album in Andorra, Soundtrack for Post-Collapse World

Catalan pianist and composer Carles Viarnès performs his album *Post* at Andorra la Vella's Teatre Comunal on Thursday at 8:30pm, as part of the MoraBanc Season.

The project imagines a soundtrack for the world after collapse, whether from shifts in global power, economic crises, housing shortages, or environmental disasters. Viarnès promotes fresh aesthetic values and sensitivity to counter humanity's exhaustion of the planet, focusing on overlooked details and a return to mindful contemplation. Tracks mostly start with the syllable "re," evoking reconstruction and rethinking, while critiquing the limits of personal efforts like "reduce, reuse, recycle" amid industrial pollution. The opener, "Labii," continues a series from Guido d'Arezzo's hymn syllables, linking to notes across his discography.

Blending piano as the core instrument with hyperorgan, sequencers, synthesisers, and live theremin, the music creates shifting dialogues: piano for beauty, synthesisers for relentless technology, organ for accumulated knowledge. These roles swap for experimental effect. The hyperorgan, built by Montserrat organ maker Albert Blancafort, uses wooden pipes with digital control for unusual sequences and speeds. Viarnès plans to incorporate a third model in future work.

In interviews, he described "realistic pessimism" amid global inertia and human ambition for growth, which he sees as nearly unstoppable despite collective efforts to avert crisis. "We're all working to prevent it, but global inertia and human ambition... feel unstoppable," he said. He rejects offering philosophical fixes but highlights flaws like unchecked ambition, possibly inherent to life itself. The album invites sensations lost in daily haste, using music's directness to access new emotional states beyond verbal limits.

Viarnès, with classical training from the Escolania de Montserrat starting at age four, embraces an intimate, outsider style. He dismisses AI threats to musicians, prioritising personal joy over commerce. "I don't fill large stadiums or do this for business—I'm here to enjoy it and share that joy," he said. The concert includes subtle extra-musical elements like scenography by Marc Villanueva, enhancing its organic intimacy alongside the season's classical lineup, including Philippe Herreweghe.