Album: Espaces
Artist: Nikita Fuji
Label: Hannah
Catalogue no: N/A
Tracklist:
1. Espace
1
2. Espace
2
3. Espace
3
4. Espace
4
5. Espace
5
6. Espace
6
It’s a brave person who
decides to base a conceptual ambient album around a work composed by one of the
masters of 20th century minimalism, and even braver when that work
is one of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt’s works, in this case ‘Fratres’. The
original is itself a sublime work, a masterpiece combining the simple with the
seemingly complex, so to even contemplate the act of taking a part of it and
expanding on its sublimity is astounding.
I’ll be honest – I am not
much for classical instrumentation and music. I find classical music too
intrusive, too much of an imposition on my aural reality. I am not saying that
it’s bad, just that I don’t understand it and my brain can’t process it in the
same way that I do with dark ambient.
This is a roundabout way
of saying that Fuji’s interpretation, even if it’s only a slice of the original
and so taken out of context, feels transcendent in a way that Pärt’s work
doesn’t. There again, they’re two completely different beasts, and like I
averred above my preferences are nothing to do with the quality of the original
– this is merely how *I* respond to it. Espaces
is essentially one track divided into six parts but ultimately the divisions
are meaningless – taken as a whole this album can be interpreted as a journey
through the cold, lightless regions of the earth, places where the sun hides
its face for months at a time and, even when it does shine, the temperature
declines to rise much above freezing. Frigid winds blowing is the only form of
movement here, and they carry with them the icy dust of ages and eons,
obliterating and obscuring the landscape, making features barely perceptible or
even recognisable. In those times when the microscopic particles cease their
turbulence and settle, the wind lessens, and the skies clear, movement doesn’t
entirely desist: look up and we see the dance of even tinier particles shimmer
across the dome of the heavens. Behind the veil stars twinkle frostily, their
light as pure and unalloyed as we are likely to see.
This is serene and
beautiful, but it also carries the seeds of darkness within it. In spite of how
peaceful and tranquil it may appear, for the most part that’s only a
superficial thing. Snow and ice, especially when sculpted by natural forces,
can look spectacular, but cold can also bring death. Regardless of how fine and
uplifting this music sounds and feels, that potentially lethal element lurks
behind every note here. The glacial elegance portrayed here is alluring,
enticing, but it’s perhaps fortunate that we are experiencing it from afar, at
many removes. This is definitely a thing of beauty, but it comes with sharp
edges.
Support this new label by
going here to purchase your copy of this digital only album:
Psymon Marshall 2019
No comments:
Post a Comment