Sillon 2
Alessandra Rombola, a flutist originally from Italy now living in Spain, presents six pieces recorded inside a church located in the town of Uruena, hence the album’s title. Rombola’s classical training is immediately in evidence both by virtue of her technical command of the instrument and, less fortunately to these ears, by a slightly constrained quality in the improvisations. The extended techniques she uses are, by now, fairly commonplace so they shouldn’t be particularly salient (a good thing), allowing one to focus more on the overall structure of the performances. However, for the most part, that structure also fails to grip, causing the attention to drift back to the technique as well as to the attractively resonant sound-space and what I believe to be traffic noise filtering in. I even get the slight impression she plays to that noise on occasion. The sounds Rombola generates are solid and impressive and one can enjoy, for instance, the great contrast between the pops, guttural roars, key-clicks, breath gulps, etc. on a piece like “Misopo”, but the conceptual “glue” holding the ideas together is difficult for this listener, at least, to hear. On “Amapola”, there are intriguing effects that sound as though small, hard items are being buffeted around inside the flute as it’s being tootled (and, I think, a plane’s flying above as well!) in addition to whooshing breath tones that caused me to recall some dimly remembered George Crumb compositions from the 60s but again, I was unconvinced by the whole. With the fifth track, “Quenco”, she puts things together most effectively. A low, sputtering line, urgently blown, is offset by metallic clatter (something like a key in the flute?) and the combination simply works beautifully, allowing you to utterly forget you’re listening to a flutist and to simply experience the sound. I’d very much like to hear more in this vein, with this expansiveness.
http://www.sofamusic.no/sillon/
Posted by Brian Olewnick on February 10, 2006 3:43 PMI think you're selling this disc short. While the individual sounds may not be completely new to you, I'd challenge you to come up with another record of such extreme solo flute music.
I think this record is extraordinary - conceptually, technically, evocatively.
Posted by: unwrinkled at February 17, 2006 9:46 AM"I think this record is extraordinary"
I totally agree with it. One of the best discs released in 2005, and the best of Sillón's (so far)
I agree with Tadk & Andrew 100%. All three releases on Sillon so far - the Doneda and the Wade Matthews - are absolutely superb. But I see Keith Moliné was also underwhelmed by it in the latest Wire. And neither Brian nor Keith mention Pierre Olivier Boulant's recording, which is essential.
Posted by: Dan Warburton at February 17, 2006 11:24 PMHey, glad you all like it more than I. Maybe I'll come around.
Haven't heard the Boulant.
Posted by: Brian Olewnick at February 18, 2006 4:37 AM"Haven't heard the Boulant"
As a performer Pierre-Olivier Boulant is credited only to "Sopranino-radio" and "Montsegur" (both w/ M. Doneda), but as a "sound-wizard" (as I. Zach calls him) he worked with Le Quan Ninh, Doneda, Fabrice Charles, Bertrand Gauguet, Ensemble Baroque de Toulouse and many more, so you should have heard his work before - maybe usually you just don't read notes in booklets. Back to POB - I think he can turn silence into something, which seems to appear next to you, something so real that you could reach hand and touch it. Then think what he can do with sounds.
If you are interested in complete info on his work, just visit the Puffskydd site [http://puffskydd.free.fr/]
Sorry, I thought, when Dan said "Pierre Olivier Boulant's recording", he was talking about an individual release of which I was unaware.
His name as recordist had indeed slipped under my radar.
Posted by: Brian Olewnick at February 18, 2006 5:48 AMI second most opinions on "Urunea". It's superb/fantastic/outstanding well-recorded piece of work. By far, the strongest Sillon release so far. Can anyone recommend other releases from Alessandra to check out?
Posted by: Tom Sekowski at February 18, 2006 6:39 PMhttp://www.shef.ac.uk/~ps/efi/labels/confront/front10.html
But I haven't heard it and I'm sure it's OOP. Brian Marley can no doubt confirm that.
Posted by: Dan Warburton at February 18, 2006 11:43 PMi think Alessandra's cd on confront is out of print I am afraid. But, I can say that MUTA, the trio with Alessandra Rombolá, Rhodri Davies and myself, will be recording our first cd to be released on SOFA later this year. Stay tuned !
Posted by: Ingar Zach at February 19, 2006 2:48 AMThat's great news, Ingar. Keep us informed - and welcome to Bags.
Posted by: Dan Warburton at February 19, 2006 5:32 AM"But I haven't heard it and I'm sure it's OOP. Brian Marley can no doubt confirm that."
It's so out of print I've never even seen, never mind heard, it.
Posted by: Brian Marley at February 19, 2006 5:45 AMHaha! Good old Confront! That's what we call New London Silence haha!
Posted by: Dan Warburton at February 19, 2006 6:26 AM.................................................. © 2003 - 2006 bagatellen ..................................................