First COLLEEN (AKA CECILE SCHOTT) was a pure electronic artist. Then she learned to play a vast array of instruments but gave them electronic treatments. Now there’s nothing electronic about this album at all.
The Paris-based artist’s instrumental credits – and she is the only performer – are for viola da gamba (the cello’s predecessor, but with seven strings and fretted like a guitar), classical guitar, clarinet, spinet (a small harpsichord), and crystal glass, usually one or two instruments at a time, making for a very spare sound with lots of space in which to appreciate the timbres. Non-standard playing techniques extend the viola da gamba’s timbral range.
Regarding the meaning of Les ondes silencieuses, the Leaf website says, “The album’s title can be interpreted in a number of ways. ’Ondes’ translates as ‘still waters’ or ‘waves’ (as in ‘sound waves’), and Schott’s intention was to refer to the quiet stillness of calm waters, which by definition can never be completely at rest. [...] The expression is also the French name given to the infrasonic precursors to earthquakes that can only be heard by animals….”
Les ondes silencieuses could be compared to RACHEL’S, but less thickly textured, and often with an archaic tone. Beautiful, very beautiful.
