On stage, something takes over. I’m no longer quite myself. I stop thinking. I’m carried by an impulse that guides me, and I move forward. It’s only in the days after that I truly begin to realize what happened. The body comes home, but the soul stays there, somewhere between two gilded walls. And in the calm that follows the storm, I want to return to what made the second act feel like magic: those voices from Prague.
I met the Prague Philharmonic Choir to work on Your Inner World. I told you about that piece in Piano Scene #14. For the first time, on this fourth solo album, I’ve added other ingredients beyond my instrument alone. Over these two years of searching, my compositional language has grown, and I felt the need to widen the musical colors I wanted to paint with.
Prague is a city that feels as if it was built to the sound of classical music. I decided to go there to record. Culture is everywhere there. I’m especially drawn to the city’s sculptures, they look as if they’re carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders.
The musicians I had the honor of meeting in Prague hold themselves to a demanding standard without arrogance. A level of work that doesn’t brag, it simply shows. It made me think that a city’s depth is reflected in the artists it shelters.
I organized many sessions in prestigious places across the Czech capital. The more music I captured there, the more I wanted to create. I would fly back to Los Angeles, isolate myself with the ideas that kept me alive night and day, and then get back on a plane to record with the musicians I had chosen.
I grew especially attached to one choir. By focusing on scoring for their angelic voices, I was able to shape something beautiful out of difficult moments I lived through in 2025. Composing for a choir is composing for a collective light. It’s no longer solitude speaking, it’s an ensemble. They are thirty immensely talented young women, and I wanted them with me on stage in Paris.
Act 2 at the Opéra Garnier was their moment. The music opened up, the piano stopped being alone. What moved me was their gaze. They walked through the opera’s corridors the way you step into a dream you don’t dare touch. They had worked with an impressive rigor without ever losing that magic in their eyes. And you could hear it. Because their voices are pure and sincere.
On stage, you cheered them. And after the show, they came to see me. They told me they perform often, but that it was the first time they had experienced applause like that, that they would remember it for the rest of their lives. I wanted to thank you for the welcome you gave them. They will carry it in their hearts forever, and I know they will build themselves on that memory.
Deep down, what I’ve been chasing from the beginning goes beyond music. I don’t want only to play. I want to create moments that gather people, and that hold. Moments that become landmarks for those who live them, and for those who step onto the stage.
This fourth album is revealing itself to you more and more, clue by clue. And I like including you while everything is still in motion.
Sincerely,
Sofiane Pamart
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Thank you for sharing your lovely words.