This recent collaboration between Belgian double bassist and drone composer Innerwoud with soprano Astrid Stockman comes drifting out of the speakers like mist floating across a long forgotten battlefield. There is a humanity here, fused with a kind of melancholy that envelops the listener in a web of distant memories. The piece was originally written as a soundscape opera with text by Aida Gabriels, based on the Greek character of Medea.
The piece is entirely inhabited by evocative double bass and the soaring beauty of soprano voice, with a touch of percussion to add a little further texture where necessary; but this is all that the four segments need. Innerwoud’s ability with the double bass as an instrument, and also as a means of producing background texture, is formidable and at points it is hard to believe that is all that is being used.
The first segment opens subtly and the slow stroke of the lightly bowed strings is accompanied by other sounds breathing and passing in obscurity with a voice whispering the first elegy, barely heard above the rising and falling of the bass. It is the kind of thing that you could imagine Jarboe performing, but in many ways it is too subtle. The words are seemingly stream of consciousness: “Carcasses rankle bore through bark coats cortex seedling”, all delivered as if it were the most delicate of information for our ears only. Astrid’s gorgeous voice takes centre stage for the second segment. There is something about hearing a well-controlled soprano delivering English words that somehow makes it approachable, and with Innerwoud’s backing means that there is none of the kind of histrionic performance that often comes with an operatic vocal fighting against a tidal wave of bombastic orchestration. The two elements of the bass, the drone and the gentle string work act as a framework for the voice and when the voice drops away, it leaves the instrumental part ebbing and flowing like a gentle tidal inlet, slowed right down to fully appreciate the lulling motion. A deep, regular rhythm like breathing underground is introduced towards the end of the piece, and it punctuates each of the bass’s circular motifs until the exquisite piece is finished and the side is over.The second side starts with a little jazz-inflected interlude, supple bass plucks that lead into the final segment that continues like a reprise of the second segment. These extraordinary words set against the humblest of backings. The voice hovers over the misty battlefield like a ghost of redemption, with the bass strokes fluttering like forgotten flags marking long lost moments. There is something hypnotic about the rise and fall of the drone, but when the stone-crushing percussion of Treha Sektori is introduced it really changes the texture. As the voice drifts back into the fray like a dream, the glorious piece finally comes to a conclusion and we are left bereft as everything is gently removed until silence reigns again.
-Mr Olivetti-
