Another trippy album by Nicole Liz\u00e9e, and this time fully supported by the more than famous Kronos Quartet. True to form, Liz\u00e9e blends the digital and the analogue, the serious and the humorous, the vintage and the contemporary, high and low art in a remarkable symbiosis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/em>. 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Death to Kosmische<\/em> 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,<\/em> with a few LSD capsules for creative support. Regarding hauntology, Liz\u00e9e 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Golden Age of the Radiophonic Workshop [Fibre-Optic Flowers]<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n