THE SLOW MUSIC MOVEMENT​
  • Home
  • Music Tips
  • Radio/Playlists
  • Record Label/Licensing
  • Blog
  • Sound Advice
  • About
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Music Tips
  • Radio/Playlists
  • Record Label/Licensing
  • Blog
  • Sound Advice
  • About
  • Contact
Search by typing & pressing enter

YOUR CART

Picture

The Slow Music Movement Blog

​Mostly we put our daily recommendations here for the blog readers among you, although occasionally we go longform.
Reading about music is a bit like looking at pictures of food - not nearly half as much fun as getting involved, so we scribble a brief intro to hopefully whet your appetite but you're better off just hitting play. Not very "slow" I know but there's a lot of music to check these days & hopefully you'll find the recommendations a handy filter.
​Trust your ears, not opinions.

18/10/2020 0 Comments

Snowdrops - Volutes (Injazero)

WHAT THE COVER LOOKS LIKE:
Picture

WHAT WE SAY:

The new LP from Snowdrops for Injazero Records is a stunning contemporary classical joy. Aided by the stirring viola of Anne-Irène Kempf the duo concentrate on the keys & vintage electronics, including the Ondes Martenot (look it up I had to!), which give the free flowing compositions an otherworldly air.

https://snowdrops.bandcamp.com/album/volutes
WHAT YOUR EARS SAY:

WHAT THE RELEASE NOTES SAY:

France chamber duo Snowdrops sign to Injazero Records for the release of their graceful debut album Volutes on October 16th 2020, an eloquent miniature symphony of strings, piano and the notoriously challenging Ondes Martenot instrument.

Formed in 2015 by Mathieu Gabry and Christine Ott, the pair’s respective experience yields a freedom and spontaneity, and a deeply personal approach to composition and orchestration. Christine Ott has performed alongside celebrated film composer Yann Tiersen, longstanding UK alternative band (and reputable soundtrack composers) Tindersticks, and French post-rock experimentalists Oiseaux-Tempête, resulting in the breadth of musical knowledge and the acute, skillful sensitivity to compositional subtleties and sympathies evident in Volutes. Alongside their contribution of piano, strings, mellotron, electronics and the Ondes Martenot, for Volutes Gabry and Ott are joined by virtuosic viola player Anne Irène-Kempf. From a classical and baroque background, Kempf’s extremely lively and spontaneous playing adds a special colour to the album.

The duo draw from a unique combination of contemporary classical, jazz, electronic music and film score, and spent the first few years of their partnership composing essentially to picture. Most notably, this soundtrack work includes the score to Phuttiphong Aroonpheng’s 2018 feature Manta Ray, which won the Lion Award for Best Film at the 2018 Venice Festival (Orizzonti category), and was eventually released by the UK’s Gizeh Records in 2019.

Much like their composition work for film, Volutes is based on an intimate and intuitive relationship with deeply expressive imagery. However, for Volutes, the imagery is conjured by the music instead of soundtracked by it. Opening single “Ultraviolet” marries blissful waves of the Martenot - Christine Ott’s specialist instrument - ebbing and rising against a raft of yearning, gentle strings and the barely perceptible spindrift of electronic synthesis, which build toward the piece’s soaring finale. Elsewhere, “Trapezian Fields” is led by lilting piano and a subtle sci-fi undercurrent of popping, bubbling rhythmic punctuation. Later in the album, “Odysseus” is well named - a hugely evocative, powerful journey of soaring dynamic changes that orbit around alien soundworlds and a densely textured crescendo that survives long after the final strains of its melody.
 

Credits
All music composed by Snowdrops, except for Comma (Variation 1) which is composed by Christine Ott and Trapezian Fields by Mathieu Gabry.

Christine Ott: Piano, Ondes Martenot
Anne-Irène Kempf: Viola
Mathieu Gabry: Piano, Mellotron, MS2000

Recorded at Wurth Museum Auditorium, Erstein, in July 2019 | Edited by Christine Ott & Mathieu Gabry, in September 2019 | Mixed by Mathieu Gabry & Benoit Burger, between September 2019 and April 2020 | Mastered by Sean McCann at Recital www.recitalprogram.com | Artwork by Lali Torma www.lalitorma.com | Design by Özge Cöne www.ozgecone.com | Injazero Records www.injazerorecords.com | Published by Phantom Limb Publishing | linktr.ee/snowdrops


0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    OUR MISSION STATEMENT GOES SOMETHING LIKE THIS

    Lazy Days, Hazy Moments & Dancing to a Slower Groove

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    April 2017

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Lazy Days, Hazy Moments & Dancing To a Slower Groove