"True music is reconciliation with God"
Albino Luciani (Pope John Paul I), quoted
in sleevenotes to "Wave" by Patti Smith.
Alain Amouyal is a
former French dentist/music therapist
who turned to full-time composition
in 1999 and whose extraordinary muse
and the music it produces has spoken
to me perhaps more than any other since
I first encountered it almost six months
ago. Although Amouyal has also released
discs of solo piano and full orchestral
arrangements of his music (to be reviewed
here shortly), this pair of CDs, the
tracks drawn from his "Catharsis" set
(10CDs, one piece per disc, so you have
a more than decent representative sample
included here), strike me as the most
singular, idiomatic and fully realised
expressions of his art that I have so
far heard.
The magnificent music
on these discs, with its improbable
origins in music therapy, was, in the
composer's own words, "improvised on
Roland XP50, then revised on Mac with
Sample Cells for timbral and orchestral
arrangement". The effect is, without
exception, stunningly effective, with
Amouyal's "Catharsis" music, as suggested
above, assuming the mantle of a purgative,
redemptive and ultimately healing force;
there are some very austere, bleak,
dark moments in these pieces but I can
guarantee that you will be touched and
even changed having heard them and will
want to hear them again, as they are
truly life affirming. The composer's
"Æva" appellation gives us a clue
to his inspiration and then to the roots
and ultimate strength and relevance
of this music. His work is primarily
informed by the "myth" of the "eternal
couple", as exemplified superbly but
not uniquely by the "legend" of Orpheus
and Eurydice, but also taps into a unseen
stream of other connections/relations
that have spoken incisively and decisively
to this listener, on numerous and various
occasions since his late teens - Carl
Jung's ideas of the collective unconscious,
folk/ancestral memory and, above all,
the archetype; Joseph Campbell's fascinating
and entertaining popular expositions
of the same; the incomparable Norwegian
saxophonist Jan Garbarek, following
in the footsteps of Halvorsen and Tveitt,
speaking about and acting upon his ideas
of the musical ties that bind the Nordic,
Near Eastern, Indian and Oriental worlds
together; my fellow Sheffielder Bruce
Chatwin's nomad soul and especially
his legendary encounter, like Thesiger
and Newby before him and Bealby since,
with pre/non-Islamic, Celtic looking,
wine-drinking people in the Hindu Kush,
descended from or claiming common ancestry
with the ancient Greeks.
I treasure these discs
and look forward to acquainting myself
with the full set. On a very personal
note, it is not an overstatement to
say that the music they contain really
has helped me through what I imagine
will come to be regarded as my annus
horribilis, with bereavement, subsequent
depression but hopefully, now, recovery.
In terms of the music, I find many resonances
with various ECM projects (especially
records like Garbarek's All Those
Born with Wings and Eleni Karaindrou's
soundtracks, including, unsurprisingly,
the recent Trojan Women), the
Nordic melodic/melancholic element in
Touch's catalogue (Biosphere, Hilmarsson
etc.) and also some of the music from
the monumental Axiom Ambient project
(e.g. Peace in Essaouria and,
even more so, Cosmic Trigger).
Above and beyond that though, if truth
were told, it sounds like music I have
always known, and is very often
simultaneously futuristic and archaic,
both of these observations no doubt
relating to its archetypal/universal
qualities. The Orpheus connection is
inherent, with its reference to modes
and pentatonic form, perhaps recalling
the "Greek" inspirations of the still
underrated and underexposed John Foulds
and, even more authentically, Mikis
"Zorba" Theodorakis's serious masterpiece
Passion of the Sadducees. The
soundworld could, on one level, be described
as "ambient" but it is pared down rather
than minimalist (i.e. not repetitious)
and the very antithesis of lush - absolutely
not background music. Those rightly
enamoured of Alan Hovhaness's Armenian
inspirations may also find it very much
to their liking but the only "modern"
French music it actually reminds me
of at all is Koechlin's masterly Jungle
Book sequence and, perhaps some
of genius Breton harpist Alan Stivell's
more impressionistic, less folksy moments.
Beyond that, I am also brought full
circle back to the plangent melodies
of the mediaeval trouveres of
Amouyal's part of the world, the Languedoc,
who provided the soundtrack to the Cathar
"heresy" and the crusades which destroyed
it (Paul Hillier's Proensa (ECM)
is an ideal introduction).
The individual pieces
on the two discs are generally quite
long, ranging from 10 to 26 minutes,
and progress at almost always a slow
or medium pace; despite this, Amouyal's
sense of development within a piece
tends to be excellent and totally focussed,
but I would single out Vocalises
and Voyage sur la Spirale for
special mention. In the case of the
former, the only piece I am aware of
carrying the same appellation that bears
any musical resemblance is Vaughan Williams'
wistful valedictory, Gaelic devotional
inspired musing. Here the mood is also
hushed one, but there is a deeper sense
of sorrow, especially when the sound
of the Greek lyra is invoked,
yet it is still a meditative and ultimately
cathartic listening experience. I am
even put in mind, at times, of the harrowing
but transcendent instrumental soundscapes
Brian Eno and David Bowie conjured up
on their series of late-70s Berlin-recorded
albums (e.g. Subterraneans from
Low). Voyage is an absolute
tour de force, to borrow from
the composer's own language, and encapsulates
Amouyal's vision in this series perfectly,
an epic but non-histrionic musical journey
from dark into light (I cannot think
of a more appropriate way of describing
it). This is music that begs and deserves
a hearing - it touches me on so many
different levels and has the potential
for a very wide audience and almost
universal appeal. It is categorically
not an easy listen, the only oasis of
real calm in these particular selections
being the piece Coeur Éclairé
itself, a still epicentre around which
the other pieces plumb the depths and
scale the heights of intense and varying
emotions. If most modern composition,
electronica, art music etc. tends to
merely wash over you, then Alain Amouyal's
alternative take may be just the wake-up
call you need. I cannot recommend it
highly enough.
Neil Horner
SILCORD ORPH4 [59.50]