System of a Down’s Serj Tankian Pairs His Poetry With a Piano Concerto on ‘Disarming Time’

System of a Down’s Serj Tankian pairs his poetry with classical music in the new video for “Disarming Time: A Modern Piano Concerto.” The piece appears on a new collection, Cool Gardens Poetry Suite, which arrives Thursday, July 8th.

Tankian originally released “Disarming Time” as a standalone musical composition back in June, while this new version finds the musician reciting several poems over the expansive 23-minute piece. “Disarming Time” also arrives with a music video, crafted by visual artist David Bradford, that further animates and complements the Tankian’s mix of music and poetry.

The poetry version of “Disarming Time” is one of four tracks on Cool Gardens Poetry Suite. The other three similarly find Tankian reciting poems from his recently published collection, Cool Gardens, over classical pieces. Bradford has crafted other videos to accompany the collection as well.

“Cool Gardens Poetry Suite animates the book to where the words come off the page and dance into the auditory canals of listeners sweetened by intimate musical landscapes,” Tankian said in a statement.

Tankian has a handful of other projects slated to arrive later this year. Next will be Cinematique, out August 6th, comprising 25 compositions split into two collections that explore both classical soundscapes (Illuminate) and more modern ones (Violent Violins). Tankian also plans to release two film soundtracks before the end of 2021 for the documentaries Truth to Power and I Am Not Alone.