Brushes & Beats
Painting Feelings, Sampling Souls: from Matisse to Berlioz
Way before I ever listened to Berlioz, I fell in love with Impressionism.
One of my favorite parts about studying fashion design was art history class. It was challenging, it demanded a lot of engagement, but for me, it was all about how each lecture transported me to a different time. A time when artists were consumed with the desire to reflect not just their inner world, but the society around them, using whatever tools they had at hand.
Think about it: in mid-2025, we’ve got videos, styluses that mimic every brush ever invented, and the scariest of them all - AI. Today, being an artist doesn’t require as much technical skill, but it still demands vision. Back in the 19th century? Babe, you had to have the hand and the soul.
Enter the Impressionists.
Imagine a bunch of mostly French painters in the late 1800s, tired of the rigid, formal, realistic art that was the standard. They said, “What if we paint how things feel rather than how they look?” So they grabbed their brushes, ran outdoors, and started capturing fleeting light, shadow, movement - little moments. The vibe of life.
But what’s even cooler? This shift was survival. Photography was emerging, stealing realism’s spotlight. So painters leaned into feeling. They embraced movement, atmosphere, mood.
That’s what brings me to Berlioz.
Not Hector Berlioz, the classical composer, but the new one. The one whose tagline is: "if Matisse made house music." I mean... art meets music? Say less.
Matisse, while shaped by the Post-Impressionists (the “okay but what does it mean?” gang), was a Fauvist at heart - wild colors, bold strokes, zero chill. Think emotion first, logic second. It’s refreshing to see a modern artist, like Berlioz, reaching back into art history for inspiration - reminding us that you don’t need to follow trends to be timeless.
I first heard Berlioz at the beginning of last winter, while falling in love. The song was “Deep in It.” And oh, I was deep in it - deep into him, into the chaos, into the magic of Milan. The city was cold, but the sun would peek through. I was hopping from one apartment viewing to the next, trying to build something stable while everything else felt so unsteady.
That song gave me the boost I didn’t know I needed.
After months of drowning in jazz I suddenly met someone who loved it too. And just like that, I found this contemporary twist on it. Berlioz made the transition into winter smoother. His music isn’t as complex as traditional jazz, but the way he builds tracks with layered samples is so gutsy, so intuitive. It’s comforting, fresh, and perfect to work to… or just zone out and breathe.
As for “Deep in It”? It’ll always remind me of that new beginning. Of her, of then. I’d go back to that moment when she found the song, sit next to her, and let her have one more second in that feeling.
Erdem A/W 2025
And as soon as I thought of writing about Berlioz, and drawing a parallel to the Impressionists and some that followed (up to Matisse), I had a very specific collection in mind: Erdem’s Fall 2025.
There’s a shared thread here - in how we carry memory, emotion, and instinct into something visual or sonic. Like how Impressionists captured not the scene, but the sensation of the moment, Berlioz loops feelings into rhythm, and Erdem layers grief and beauty into fabric. In his collection, the memory of his late mother isn’t painted with precision - it’s imagined, abstracted, almost dreamlike. Just like a song can take you back to a version of yourself you’re still trying to understand, Erdem’s work feels like a portrait made of emotion rather than likeness.
Both artists, in their own way, reach back into the past not to repeat it, but to re-feel it. Whether through sound or stitching, they remind us that inspiration doesn’t always come from clarity - sometimes, it’s the blur that tells the truth.
Here’s an illustration I made, trying to capture that feeling - when the music hits just right, and you’re not just listening, you’re dissolving into it, like sinking into warm water with your eyes closed, heart open.