Another trippy album by Nicole Lizée, and this time fully supported by the more than famous Kronos Quartet. True to form, Lizée blends the digital and the analogue, the serious and the humorous, the vintage and the contemporary, high and low art in a remarkable symbiosis.
Like the thread of a psychedelic Ariadne, the theme (invented by the philosopher Jacques Derrida) of “hauntology,” which refers to the idea that the present is always haunted by the spectres of the past or by futures that have not occurred, runs through the four compositions of ZonelyHearts. The Derridian concept has also stimulated the birth of musical styles specifically adapted, such as Chillwave, Glo-Fi, H-Pop. Lizee updates this aesthetic in contemporary music, which uses sampling of old techno-primitive sounds or lo-fi instruments often created in the 60s-70s.
Death to Kosmische immerses us in a delightful sonic frenzy that feels like it was pulled from the soundtrack of a B-movie from the Hammer studios (1950s to 1970s) or from the pen of Bernard Herrmann for The Day the Earth Stood Still, with a few LSD capsules for creative support. Regarding hauntology, Lizée adds to the strings of Kronos a stylophone (created in 1967) and an omnichord (1981), two rudimentary electronic instruments, which some call gadgets, but which offer beautiful sound possibilities, sometimes resembling the theremin. I loved this piece, and I consider it a small, joyfully expressive masterpiece.
The Golden Age of the Radiophonic Workshop [Fibre-Optic Flowers] is the shortest composition in the program, at less than five minutes. It is a very focused tribute to a BBC show, broadcast in the 60s, which explored the possibilities related to the musical use of everyday objects. By the same token, the host, Delia Derbyshire, contributed to the flourishing of electronic music by stimulating the sonic imagination of thousands of young musicians and music lovers. The rhythm is sustained by the quintessential analogue tool: a typewriter.
Black MIDI refers to the process of writing down on sheet music the multiple notes created with a MIDI interface. Knowing that the interface can generate thousands of notes at the same time, the sheet of paper is thus almost completely blackened. It becomes something humanly impossible to play. It is not strictly a musical style, but rather a mechanical gesture. That said, Lizée appropriates the concept by manipulating it and unifying it with the acoustic quartet, creating, through all sorts of techniques and transformations of the electronically played MIDI score, a narrative thread that coalesces all kinds of granular textures, the human voice (spoken word and occasional vocalisations), and the organic action of the quartet. The work, lasting over 22 minutes, is more abstract than the previous ones, but it contains an impressive amount of ideas and often seductive details, as well as episodes of playful mischief. Another gem of fusion between contemporary “classical” scholarly creativity and popular electro culture.
The title piece, ZonelyHearts, also lasting more than 22 minutes, evokes memories of The Twilight Zone, even recalling the iconic narration of Rod Sterling. Lizee imagines her piece as a series of episodes, each packed with inventiveness and surprises, just like the series itself. Crystal-clear moments of suspension, mysterious string glissandos, dreamlike atmospheres, and a touch of kitschy romanticism follow one another. We indulge and we want more!
Perhaps the best album released under the Centrediscs label in years.
