A truly compelling piece of art from beginning to end, Mathieu Karsenti has downright blown us away on his newest work, “Tōji (part I & II)”. Keep reading as we share our thoughts on the single, as well as a much needed background on this artist.

For those potentially out of the loop, Mathieu Karsenti is a France-born and now Los Angeles-based composer who’s treating his music in a way that we sincerely haven’t experienced before. On his newest piece titled “Tōji (part I & II)”, the artist has managed to create these grand and atmospheric soundscapes that exude intense emotion, highs and lows, and have this immersive nature about them that makes you stop to think. If this is your introduction to his music, we’ve found this to be an ideal jumping off point to explore more.

Having won multiple awards with a ton of credits across television, film, and dance for his scores, we’re not surprised in the slightest he’s received the recognition he’s got. In his actual process, he “visualizes each piece of music like a painter, overseeing every aspect of the work from cover art to orchestration, all without concession.”. Coming in at nearly 9 minutes in runtime, immediately you’re hit by a wide array of strings that are right in your face, however things are continually changing and transforming in the background as the song evolves. Although this is an instrumental, we confidently think that words would ultimately take away from the beauty that this has to offer, basically confirming their potential distractions. The production is as crisp as ever and we’d also urge everyone who’s about to listen to enjoy this with a nice pair of headphones so as to not miss out on the sonic subtleties of it all.

At this point we’ve taken the opportunity to listen a few times through, and each time has given us a different perspective and the ability to hear new things. There’s an obvious density and complexity here through all the instruments you’re experiencing, and you’d really be doing yourself a disservice if you aren’t focusing 100%. With a massive discography dating back to works from 2015, there’s no doubt in our minds that we’ll be doing some exploration for ourselves to audibly hear and decipher just how far Mathieu has come.

For now, please do yourselves a favor and click those links below to listen, follow along, and of course to stay tuned for much more on the way in 2023.

Listen to “Tōji (part I & II)”

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