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This new album and Lightwave's first on the label, Horizon Music, is their first release in four years. "Cantus Umbrarum" marks another innovative turning point for this extraordinary ensemble, with a powerful, hour-long group of compositions reflecting their unique musical interpretations of the shadowy, mysterious underworld. Lightwave is the French duo of Christoph Harbonnier and Christian Wittman, and fellow cohort, Jacques Derégnaucourt, exploring the juxtiposition between ambient, mainstream electronic and avant-garde classical musics. Based upon Lightwave's sound installation at the 38th Festival Rugissants in the subterranean caves of Vercors, France, the album also features a compelling two-part 18-minute live performance recorded at the event. Although the album plays as one, unified extended piece, there is a distinct flavor to each of the fifteen sections. "Cantus Umbrarum" is a poetic soundscape, which explores the underworld, the world of shadows, of memory and dark reflection. The ensemble describes the album as " music of the dark, of the night." There is an inner logic and necessity within the music on "Cantus Umbrarum", with all musicians involved working in the same direction, towards the same goal, sharing the same basic feelings and visions and giving them strength and persuasive power. It is a ominous soundtrack, with a blend of electronic and slowly evolving acoustic instruments (turkish clarinet (ney), saxophone, flute, violin) and voices (French,German, English, Italian) spoken by French theater actors, and by John Greaves, a British actor and singer. The choral music is something between 'Mundus' and 'Tycho', a subterranean atmospheric opera, ...very scenic and evocative. The music and the sound is very sophisticated. It is atmospheric without being blaise, organic without attempting to be "ethnic," ... an important document of Lightwave's most recent ambient excursions. "Cantus Umbrarum" will surely be regarded as a benchmark of ambient music for years to come. Review by Ben Kettlewell information: |
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Lightwave
