White Night

by Nikolett Pankovits

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about

Over the past few years, Pankovits has been organically working on a new album; this is the second song from that much-anticipated project.

Pankovits says, “In the Colors project I want to showcase the beauty of diversity in my life. Connecting the content to this idea, the lyrics will be poems by international poets—covering different continents. I would like to put out singles that we will connect visually and do a record with nine songs once all the singles are out. Each song will connect to a color.”

“White Night” is based on three poems by legendary Russian poet Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966), with Pankovits’ own lyrics condensing them into two verses. The poems range from Akhmatova’s first book of poems, published in 1912: Vecher (Evening), to work from the 1960s, a few years before her death.
The three poems are about parting, loss, and memory, sometimes bittersweet, the complexity of love and its end and remembering it or anticipating remembering it.

Plaintive trumpet and piano set the mood for a beautiful mid-tempo ballad that can stand, musically and lyrically and vocally, with the best of Joni Mitchell’s and Sade’s relationship ruminations. It’s jazz yet also beyond genre—an adult pop song. Trumpet obligatos shadow the vocal like memory commenting on/reacting to the actual events. The song’s four-and-a-half minutes fly by, squeezing a wealth of emotion into a short, easily flowing structure of masterful songwriting and arrangement.

“White Night” is being released on the 58th anniversary of Akhmatova’s death.

lyrics

LYRICS:
There will be thunder then. Remember me.
You’ll say ‘ She asked for storms.’
The entire world will turn the color of crimson stone,
and your heart as then, will turn to fire.

That day, in Moscow, a true prophecy,
when for the last time I say goodbye,

soaring to the heavens that I longed to see,
leaving my shadow here in the sky.

See that dark house again.
Only one candle glows,
A yellow, complacent, flame.

See, how the fields die down,
In the sunset gloom of firs,
I still hear the echo of your voice

That day, in Moscow, a true prophecy,
when for the last time I say goodbye,
soaring to the heavens that I longed to see,
leaving my shadow here in the sky.

Lyrics by Nikolett Pankovits

Based on poems by Anna Akhmatova: Moscow trefoil: Almost into the album, White Night, Song of the Last Meeting

credits

released March 5, 2024
Nikolett Pankovits – voice
Josh Deutsch – trumpet
Juancho Herrera – guitar
Manu Koch – piano
Bam Rodriguez – upright bass
Franco Pinna – drums

Music by Nikolett Pankovits
Lyrics by Nikolett Pankovits – based on poems by Anna Akhmatova: Moscow trefoil: Almost into the album, White Night, Song of the Last Meeting

RECORDED BY
Marc Urselli at Eastside Sound Studio, New York City

MIXED AND MASTERED BY
Dave Darlington at Bass Hit Recording, New York City

PRODUCER
Nikolett Pankovits

DESIGNER
Dragana/Aleksandar

PHOTO BY
Tímea Jaksa

license

about

Nikolett Pankovits New York, New York

New York based Hungarian vocalist Nikolett Pankovits moved to New York City in 2010 and has made a name for herself by combining the music of her homeland with Latin rhythms and jazz sensibility. Having played such venues as Carnegie Hall, the Blue Note, and Joe’s Pub with acclaimed conceptual shows, she has also released two well- received albums, Magia and River produced by Juancho Herrera. ... more