Occam Ocean

VARIOUS

Composer Eliane Radigue writes of her new release: “It all began with an image seen so long ago at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles, the image of a long chart showing known wavelengths. It was clear that in addition to the wavelength from the earth to the sun, there were long waves stretching between other planets, solar systems and galaxies. Closer to us on this earth, there is the ocean that brings us closer to a more accessible contemplation. Beyond its own cycle, it also gathers the rivers, waterfalls, springs, fountains that nourish it. For that reason there are, in the occam pieces, all the themes associated with water, necessarily. It is the element that moves through them, the image of life, life in its fluidness, like the flow of blood. What I ask of the musicians is highly demanding, the virtuosity of absolute control of the instrument, an extreme, subtle and delicate kind of virtuosity. Regardless of what is being used, the essential goal is to produce and bring out the partials, the overtones, the harmonics and sub harmonics, these vibrations in the air, not only those of the string or the breath, but the intangible contents of sound. An instrument vibrating beyond the fundamental(s) generates an extraordinary richness that turns into fascination. This calls for extreme simplicity, i.e. sounds maintained between piano and mezzo forte dynamic levels, beyond which the fundamental again becomes predominant. Hence the famous law from Occam’s Razor, never overdo anything, concentrate instead on breath control, or a gentle stroke, that caress of a key or a string that is sufficient to develop and enrich this infinite universe.”

Price: $39.98