A vast soundscape of about forty minutes for 12 amplified lap steel guitars and electronics, what does that say to you? For someone like me, an insatiable curious person and adventurer of the musical thing, a great excitement. And maybe you too, I hope.
After ten years of work, ‘Vestiges’ emerges from an exploration of memory, disappearance, and the persistence of sound traces over time.
That’s what the press kit tells us. Indeed, there is something in this music that confronts us with a cosmic vastness, like a temporal abyss, a vision that leads to an infinity both overwhelming and soothing.
Alary’s music unfolds very, very slowly, as if the passage of time were viewed from the perspective of an observer in front of an object diving towards the event horizon of a black hole. Almost never does Alary allow his instruments to take on the bouncings and textures one might hear in blues or country. Essentially, it is slowly moving sound clouds that are created, with a little help from electronic editing. As if he wanted to completely evacuate any common knowledge that comes with this instrument.
READ THE INTERVIEW ABOUT THE CREATION OF VESTIGES IN 2025, IN MONTREAL
Subtle exception, however, in the 4th movement, which begins with a slightly trembling and luminous framework, before sinking into dark and unsettling depths, calmly laid out in the lowest regions of the music.
There is something of Hans Zimmer’s music for Dune by Denis Villeneuve here, more serene and soothing.
Thank you to Isak Goldschneider and Innovations en concert for making the creation of this unparalleled work possible.
