Impresario’s New Album “Deliberately Constructed Moments”

Valerian Ruminski’s style is as eclectic as they come, spanning the creative universe inside of a single track if necessary to get a specific point across to his audience, and under the Impresario moniker, we’ve got to hear some of his very best work to date. Impresario’s new album, Deliberately Constructed Moments, doesn’t sport an ironic title by any means, but instead one that tells us exactly what we’re getting into in the eleven-song collection of thoughts, fantasies, and other internal commentaries it contains. Through the most melodic filtering his profound vocal can lend the material, Ruminski breaks off what could be his most mature tracklist so far in Deliberately Constructed Moments, all while standing by the experimentalism of his previous work unfailingly. 

There’s so much passion in “Deep Purple,” “There is a Body,” “Fake News,” and “If the World Runs Out of Love” that it’s almost surprising the studio environment didn’t stifle some of the emotionality their narratives were meant to convey. It feels like I’m listening to music that was meant to be played before a crowd of people; to be declared like a scrolled message from a royal well removed from his subjects but still inclined to look after them from a distance. The insularities of the poeticisms in these tracks reflect on the quarantine culture that likely inspired them, and considering the period in history in which they were written and recorded by Ruminski, it would surprise me if their origins weren’t directly tied to the backdrop 2020 provided all of us. 

“Sandals With Socks,” “Broken Line,” “The Dancing Ghost,” “Dirty Water,” and “What a Wonderful Day” feature arrangements that challenge the abilities this player has from start to finish, but I get the idea that was a big part of compiling these songs together for an LP. Deliberately Constructed Moments is a quest of endurance and intentional strife, created as such to give us a complete look at who Ruminski really is… as Impresario. There’s an independent personality to the lyrical protagonist he describes and ultimately plays in this LP that he adopts fearlessly at the start of the record and doesn’t abandon until “If the World Runs Out of Love,” and his dedication alone makes this a worthwhile listen in my book. 

Deliberately Constructed Moments is just what I was looking for in the third installment of Impresario’s pandemic-era trilogy, and even if you haven’t heard the two records that preceded it, I’d still recommend checking it out before the summer season has come to an end. Together, these three albums tell a story that is both personal and harshly commentarial, but as an individual piece, I think this album might be the best of the bunch. I believe Valerian Ruminski is going to score another slew of accolades from across the international underground in the next few months, but if you’re questioning what all of the buzz is about, you probably haven’t been listening to Deliberately Constructed Moments in its complete, gloriously anti-commercialized form. 

Mindy McCall