Behind the Wall

“Behind the Wall” is a monument of the refined and the sophisticated in the field of ambient music. It
breathes as an EP defining itself as much more than a focusing and stimulating experience. The EP unveils
all that’s behind, converging the fine and multi-perspective baseline philosophies that are the true drivers
of our decisions and doubts.

Man from Mars is a project dedicated to melodic, expressive ambient music by the Beuk brothers – Boris

and Igor. The vast music catalogue of their artistic development is enriched by yet another piece of an ever-
evolving puzzle: the storyteller “Behind the Wall” EP.

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“Behind the Wall” evolves as a unique creature, personifying the dissimilar yet universal multitudes that lie
behind. Behind a word, a concept, an idea, a story. All the moments we live through our lives contain
multitudes in both directions – the drivers (what’s behind the wall), but also the consequences (what’s
beyond the wall). The wall can be considered a subtle metaphor of our times, as the metamorphosis in Kafka
has been at the time. The way we see life, is the way we are confined in it. The wall is what arises from the
rubble and confusion of the infinite paths that today’s society pushes the individual into, where the mental
equilibrium between the building of freedom and the building of a cage can be a matter of words, traditions,
environments, and all the intricate directions we are expanding towards and deriving from.

“Behind the Wall” opens like an as-cryptic-as-magnificent pathway, made up of three complementary roads,
Behind the Wall Pt.1, 2, and 3. The music flowing through the EP is characterized by the iconic Man from
Mars’ sound: cinematic, yet subtle enough to stay in the background – giving enough room for any story
listeners would like to imagine.

As we dive into the listening experience, we perceive a world filled with elements that are nothing more
than correspondences. Where anything is a reminder of something else. And the chain never ends. The most
iconic image, the big image, is the wall itself – astoundingly depicted by the intense and frequency-filling
pads, which cover the whole spectrum of the tracks, for certain amounts of time. That’s the similarity,
between the three tracks – the wall. But can we go beyond that, can we attempt to foresee what’s behind
the wall?

Igor and Boris provide the listeners with hints, and suggestions, that are more of an invitation to reflect
rather than a clear answer. The different tracks offer listeners some of the possible outcomes of the ways
we walk the wall – a metaphor for the ways we experience situations, unravel the knots of our troubles. The
differences can be subtle, yet decisive, and pervasive.

The storytelling factor in Man from Mars’ music is very subjective, and therefore listeners are allowed to
feel all the sadness, all the happiness, and all the feelings in between. The music deeply connects with the
individual, the ‘I’, for the very open-to-interpretations component of Beuk’s compositions.

Eventually, the music serves as an intermediary between the man and the world; the EP can be bravely
defined as the self is described in Calvino: given that there is world that side of the window and world this
side, perhaps the 'I', the ego, is simply a window through which the world sees the world.
With the hope that listeners can reflect on what’s inside and what’s outside of their world, I invite you all
to discover “Behind the Wall”.

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Edoardo Gastaldi, 18 August 2024