Snowdrops
Singing Stones Volume 1
UK GIZEH RECORDS GZH117 CD (2024)
Modern composition which borrows a little from ambient and other genres, arriving in a slow and sad mode. This is Christine Ott making a return to this label for whom she made Time To Die, aided by fellow player Mathieu Gabry who also appears on today’s item. Both are keyboard players, and also play tuned percussion – Ott on xylophone, Gabry the vibraphone.
Ott is very much at home working the Ondes Martenot, that 20th-century electronic instrument known to all classical music fans who have dipped into the Olivier Messiaen ocean, and we’ve heard Ott playing it on earlier records; I just keep wishing for her to do something truly strange and adventurous with it. The label draw our attention to the two long pieces here (in the old days they would have filled two sides of an LP), ‘Crossing’ and ‘Arctic Passage’. ‘Crossing’ is part of this duo’s repertoire; they’ve been performing this “veritable journey” piece on stage since 2016. My plea for “more Ondes Martenot” is answered during one particularly wistful section, where its voice compliments the rather stiff piano episodes of Mathieu Gabry. It’s true the listener is led through certain changes across these 19 minutes of instrumental music, just not very dramatic changes, and the whole piece remains pretty much in the same key. Not unlikeable, but I kept waiting for the promised “mystical coda” to this sentimental odyssey, and it never arrived. ‘Arctic Passage’ is even more banal in its themes, intending to evoke night-time and melting icebergs; might be suitable fare for the Glacial Movements label in Italy. The tones have slightly more weight this time, but the duo seem to be afraid of electronic sound for its own sake; they can’t resist sweetening the notes, or lapsing into imaginary cinema soundtracks, a genre which Ott has assayed before.
Speaking of visual counterparts, two pieces here cross over into the world of visual arts; ‘The Weather Project’ is a namecheck for Olafur Eliasson, an Icelandic-Danish artist who has worked with glaciers and creates large-scale installations; to this piece of music is added the violin of Anne-Irene Kempf. It’s clear the Snowdrops respect this art, and the snowy landscape, but the music lacks any grandeur. ‘Ligne de Mica’ was originally composed for a fine art exhibition by Lea Barbazanges, where the music may be attempting to mimic a close-up view of the changing colours of this particular mineral. The cover artworks aren’t related, by the way, they’re by Julie Calbert – but they are in keeping with the overall scope of the release. ‘Ligne de Mica’ works slightly better for these ears, emerging as something more intimate and small-scaled, and focused, than the other more ambitious “icy landscaping” works. Here the Ondes Martenot and synths are joined by the accordion of Bartosz Szwarc, with good results. (27/11/2024)