Chopin Residue is a multidisciplinary project that centers around sound and its transformation, using the music of Fryderyk Chopin as a conceptual and sonic starting point. At its core, the project reimagines Chopin’s compositions through a process of musical deconstruction, abstraction, and reinterpretation. These pieces are not simply remixed or rearranged; they are stripped of the piano — the iconic instrument of Chopin’s work — in order to access what remains beneath: tonal fragments, harmonic residue, and latent emotional tension.
This reimagined material forms the basis for a double album, which is an essential component of the project. Divided into two parts — Deconstructions and Reworks — the album offers distinct yet interconnected approaches to musical transformation:
Deconstructions – present newly arranged versions of Chopin’s works by participating artists, who manipulate texture, rhythm, and atmosphere to offer unfamiliar perspectives on familiar material.
Reworks – move further away from the source, using the deconstructed audio as raw material to inspire entirely new compositions, resulting in pieces that carry only faint echoes of the original but are nonetheless born from its dissolution.
The album is intended to be experienced both sequentially and simultaneously. Listeners are encouraged to play both discs at once — on two turntables or digital devices — to create evolving, layered sonic environments that echo the spatial and durational complexity of the installation. This open-ended listening format reflects the modular nature of the project’s musical logic.
Sonically, Chopin Residue navigates a landscape between experimental electronic music, ambient guitar work, free improvisation, and post-jazz sensibilities. This diversity is reflected in its contributors, who include prominent experimental musicians and genre-defying artists such as: Adrian Utley (Portishead), Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth), David Pajo (Slint, Papa M), Joey Waronker (Atoms For Peace, Beck), Gail Ann Dorsey (David Bowie), John McEntire (Tortoise), John Stanier (Battles), Jim O’Rourke, Masayoshi Fujita, Zoh Amba.
Each artist brings their unique sonic language to the project, engaging not only with Chopin’s legacy but also with the material transformations imposed by the project’s conceptual framework.They approache the material from their own sonic language: from haunting minimalism to full-spectrum abstraction, from layered guitar atmospherics to fractured rhythmic structures. There are no boundaries imposed — only the shared conceptual constraint of working from what Chopin has left behind.
While the album is embedded within a broader intermedia project — involving analog lathe cutting, performance documentation, and sculptural installations — it stands fully on its own as a musical statement. The physical vinyl edition itself reflects this dual nature: the grooves carry the transformed sound, while the artwork integrates visual traces of the process, linking the tactile and the auditory.
Ultimately, Chopin Residue offers a new way to engage with musical heritage: not as preservation, but as transformation. By dismantling and reassembling Chopin’s music, the project invites listeners to hear what’s left behind — and what can emerge — when the center is deliberately removed. It’s a work about what music becomes after the form collapses, and what emotion still lingers in the residue.
credits
released November 28, 2025
Music by Fryderyk Chopin
Art direction, design & paintings by Mariusz Szypura
Mix and production by Mariusz Szypura
Mastering by Jacek Gawłowski at JG Master Lab
Mariusz Szypura is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, producer, graphic designer, and visual artist active for nearly three
decades. Beyond music, he has created award-winning video games and distinctive audiovisual installations gaining international recognition. His latest work, Chopin Residue, is a large-scale project featuring collaborations with renowned musicians worldwide....more
