Philippe Petit’s “Closing Our Eyes” reviewed by Chain DLK

“Closing Our Eyes” is like a sonic invitation to shut out the chaos and embark on an inner voyage – a carefully architected journey where the tactile and the spectral meet. In this album, Philippe Petit, a seasoned experimenter whose career spans DJing, zine editing, and even running his own label, channels his boundless curiosity into a series of compositions that blur the lines between the acoustic and the electronic.

Across eleven parts, Petit uses prepared piano, tape manipulation, and an assortment of vintage and modular synthesizers to create a soundscape that is at once methodical and delightfully unpredictable. The music draws inspiration from celestial themes such as the Eternal Return and the mystical allure of unseen realms, echoing the spirit of his earlier work on Dante’s Divine Comedy without becoming overtly didactic. Instead, the album gently prods the listener to visualize unseen landscapes by simply closing their eyes – a subtle cue that invites introspection and reverie.

Petit’s approach is deeply personal yet playfully irreverent. There is a raw honesty in the way he layers organic instrument tones with the uncanny shimmer of electronic effects, creating passages that feel like quiet conversations in the dark. At times, the album surfaces with moments of stark minimalism – evoking the vulnerability of a solitary breath in an endless void – while at other moments it bursts into textured clusters reminiscent of a vibrant inner carnival.

Tracing his roots from Marseille to his current eclectic milieu, Petit’s musical vocabulary has evolved to embrace both a profound reverence for tradition and an untamed desire for innovation. “Closing Our Eyes” is a testament to that duality – a delicate balance between seeking solace in remembered sounds and venturing boldly into undiscovered territories of sonic expression. It’s both a meditation on the quiet power of introspection and a playful nod to the unpredictable nature of creativity itself.

In short, if you ever felt that the everyday world was too noisy and predictable, let “Closing Our Eyes” be your escape – a momentary passage into the unexpected, where every sound is a revelation waiting to be felt. Vito Camarretta

via Chain DLK

Philippe Petit’s “Closing Our Eyes” reviewed by Luminous Dash

Of het nu 1 april was of niet, de veelzijdige kunstenaar Philippe Petit eiste onze aandacht op met zijn eclectische album Closing Our Eyes.

Net zoals veel van zijn werk is ook dit album een niet voor de hand liggende verzameling nummers die elektronica en akoestische speelsheid met elkaar vermengen. Ooit journalist, dj, de bezieler van de twee uitermate interessante labels BiP_HOp en Pandemonium en ondertussen afgestudeerd in de elektroakoestische muziek in Marseille, is elke plaat een veelzijdige oefening in de verbeeldingskracht van muzikant en luisteraar.

Het kan altijd alle kanten uit met Petit, dat getuigt ook de indrukwekkende lijst van mensen met wie hij eerder al samenwerkte. We denken meteen aan Lydia Lunch, Eugene S. Robinson(meerdere keren), Asva en Simon Fisher Turner. We mogen ook zijn ambitieuze trilogie Extraordinary Tales Of A Lemon Girl en het al net zo impressionante trilogie A Reassuring Elsewhere niet over het hoofd zien.

Elf nummers bevat Closing Our Eyes, elf nummers die telkens helemaal anders klinken maar uitblinken in vindingrijkheid en speelsheid. Een joie de vivre op een niveau dat alleen met zeer veel fantasie tot een onvoorstelbaar palet aan klanken leidt waardoor we geboeid moeten luisteren om niets te missen. Elk geluidje heeft betekenis binnen het grotere geheel, of het nu een pianotoets, een geschraap met een prul, een gevonden geluid of een daxofoon (een experimenteel muziekinstrument uitgevonden door Hans Reichel) is.

We wisten dat Petit geen grenzen respecteert en eindeloos blijft zoeken naar zijn eigen creatieve klankenwereld. Dat hadden we op een stel eerdere releases die we hier in het rek hebben steken al gemerkt en dat bewijst hij nog meer dan eerder eigenlijk op deze plaat. En neen, het is geen aprilvis, zelfs niet eentje van chocolade.

via Luminous Dash

New release: Philippe Petit’s “Closing Our Eyes”

Closing Our Eyes is a series of compositions that invite the listener-spectator to find a place of interiority, a sonic journey that conjures up images and imaginary signs in perpetual change to create the possibility of pushing the imagination further, to express a visual fantasy. This could have been the imaginary soundtrack of a film that only exists on the spur of listening… You can only see the images by closing your eyes?!

Following his soundtrack to Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, Closing Our Eyes is pushing further the marriage of electronic and acoustic. From his early works recontextualizing Mahler’s first symphony, Cordophony, giving priority to sounds coming from the vibrations of one or several strings, or The Extraordinary Tales of a Lemon Girl and A Reassuring Elsewhere trilogies, Petit is always showing extreme respect to the acoustic material, keeping it fresh, accentuating the relief and depth of the noble sound-material.

This collection of pieces conjures images, mental and emotional pictures of events, scenes and moods, bringing a new palette of sounds with a vast array of inside-piano, tape manipulations, percussive instruments and modular synthesisers played in creative and unconventional ways. Organising sounds in search of sensation may be a powerful image stimulus; a new art of sound may perhaps prod our psychological forces into creating new dimensions of experience.

Acoustic transformation through electronics is musically stimulating, creating and modifying sounds, developing a new reflection of the musical language which could escape conventional stylistic limitations.

It could, though should it?

Petit is happy to keep his music in motion, natural, visceral, while being playful!

Closing Our Eyes is now available as a limited-release CD, stream or download.

Philippe Petit’s “Closing Our Eyes” reviewed by African Paper

Das neue Album “Closing Our Eyes” von Philippe Petit erscheint am 1. April bei Crónica. Es vereint elektronische und akustische Elemente zu einer Serie von Kompositionen, die laut Label dazu anregen sollen, eigene innere Bilder entstehen zu lassen. Petit setzt damit seine Auseinandersetzung mit Klang als viefältiges Ausdrucksmittel fort und entwickelt die Ansätze früherer Arbeiten weiter, darunter seine Bearbeitung von Mahlers erster Symphonie oder sein Konzept von Cordophonie, das sich auf die klanglichen Möglichkeiten von Saitenschwingungen konzentriert. 

Auch hier bleibt sein Umgang mit akustischem Material von besonderer Sorgfalt geprägt, wobei elektronische Verarbeitung nicht als Verfremdung, sondern als Erweiterung und Neuausrichtung genutzt wird. Für “Closing Our Eyes” setzt Petit eine vielseitige Kombination aus präpariertem Klavier, Daxophon, analogen Synthies, elektrischem Psalterium und Perkussion ein. Das Album erscheint als CD und zum Download.

via African Paper

Kunrad’s “Kleine Geluiden” reviewed by Music Map

Sin dai suoi primi anni di attività, Kunrad, artista olandese di stanza a L’Aia, ha creato composizioni e installazioni per restituire valore ai suoni più quotidiani.

Si inserisce in questo stesso solco anche la sua ultima fatica discografica (uscita per Crónica Records), “Kleine Geluiden”, che in italiano si potrebbe tradurre con “piccoli suoni”.

Ad alimentare la produzione, ancora una volta, c’è la grande passione per i field recordings: l’obiettivo è quello di catturare suoni sfuggenti e piccoli frammenti di tempo tramite l’uso di un ampio set di microfoni.

L’esperienza di “Kleine Geluiden”, nella mente dell’artista, dovrebbe somigliare a quella di un libro: l’ascoltatore è chiamato a pensare, immaginare e inventare nuove storie nei suoni, nelle pause, nei momenti più intensi come in quelli più morbidi.

L’apertura è affidata a “Brass & Sand”, in cui si distinguono in maniera limpida le vibrazioni e il suono della sabbia, anticipando il potenziale evocativo dei titoli come in “Stones & Water”, per celebrare le increspature dell’acqua e il suo percuotere la roccia.

Si sviluppa in tre movimenti diversi, invece, “Water & Paper Suite”, una sorta di campionario delle possibili interazioni tra l’acqua e la carta, mentre in chiusura c’è “Bridge & Hammer”, un pezzo dall’atmosfera più urbana che intende riflettere sui suoni delle strutture e dei luoghi (e magari anche dei non-luoghi) che attraversiamo su base quotidiana.

“Kleine Geluiden”, come un po’ tutta la discografia di Kunrad, rappresenta un ascolto decisamente poco convenzionale: è un’occasione di scoperta e riflessione, un esperimento pienamente riuscito, ma destinato a una nicchia. (Piergiuseppe Lippolis)

via Music Map

New release: Cecilia Quinteros’s “Qadira”

Qadira, she who is capable, is both the title of this album and an apt moniker for Argentinian cellist Cecilia Quinteros. Over the past decade and a half this Buenos Aires native has played with creative music luminaries in her native land as well as European artists. She has performed compositions commissioned for her, in avant-garde jazz settings and accompanied dancers in interdisciplinary concerts. Hence, she has always imbued her works with these various influences and experiences and the cinematic Qadira is no exception. Similar to her 2023 release Narel, the current one is partly composed and partly improvised suite for solo cello and electronics.

Opening with a resonant drone Quinteros sets a haunting ambience. She uses her extended bowing techniques on the cello to create a spiritual melody that the electronics buoy. The mysticism continues with the spontaneous second movement. The cello reverberates in the enveloping silence fusing elements of the baroque and the modern. This motif repeated throughout forming a sort of an interlude in between longer segments.

Quinteros is well versed in the western classical canon as well as the nuances of free improvisation. Here the two merge to create something that is more than just the sum of them. On Qadira 3, a melancholic composition, Quinteros strums a guitar and evokes the sounds of an exalted hymn echoing in a futuristic temple. This naturally evolves into Qadira 4 a vibrant and pastoral improvisation with ethereal “dancing” strings while, simultaneously, flirting with dissonance. Adding another intriguing dimension to the performance is Qadira 7. This extemporized piece has an eastern spirituality with Quinteros accompanying her emotive chanting with chiming percussion. The finale meanwhile returns to the contemplative quasi-symphonic harmonies of the opening track bringing this brilliant and absorbing recording full circle.

Varied and cohesive, provocative yet accessible, Qadira is a continuation of Quinteros’s unique musical journey. If anyone can forge various genres into a singular, stimulating opus it is Quinteros. She is indeed “capable” exhibiting both finesse and elegance all the while not shying away from experimentations. The result is bold and sublime.

Hrayr Attarian

Qadira is now available to download or stream from Crónica!

Kunrad’s “Kleine Geluiden” reviewed by Chain DLK

If the world were a little quieter, perhaps we’d hear it breathing. Kunrad, the Dutch artist who listens more intently than most, has spent years amplifying the hushed murmurs of everyday materials – water, paper, brass, and stone – transforming them into poetic gestures of sound. “Kleine Geluiden” (“Small Sounds”) is not just an album but a collection of sonic vignettes, each one an invitation to hear what usually goes unheard.

Kunrad’s background in composition and sound art has always leaned toward the tactile. His installations and performances have turned bridges into carillons, rainfall into percussion, and the chaotic tumble of metal tubes into a kind of aleatoric symphony. Here, removed from their original context, these sounds take on a new existence, unmoored from the mechanisms that created them.

The album opens with “Brass & Sand”, a piece that conjures the image of a forgotten brass band slowly dissolving into grains of time. The vibrations of metal resonate with a ghostly warmth, while sand – seemingly an inert, passive material – becomes an active participant in the sonic landscape, whispering, shifting, intruding.

“Stones & Water” is a lesson in controlled randomness. Rocks meet liquid with percussive intent, each splash and ripple a carefully placed note in a composition that never quite settles. There’s a meditative quality to it, as if the elements themselves are engaged in a quiet dialogue, unaware of being recorded.

The “Water & Paper Suite” stretches across three movements – “Prelude”, “Daily”, and “Convergent” – each one revealing a different aspect of this unusual pairing. Water, usually an agent of dissolution, interacts with paper in unexpected ways: dripping, smearing, saturating, reshaping the material’s sound. The pieces feel both intimate and expansive, like eavesdropping on the physical world in the process of change.

The album closes with “Bridge & Hammer”, perhaps the most kinetic of the set. Here, Kunrad’s fascination with site-specific resonance comes to the fore, as the bridge itself becomes an instrument, its percussive strikes ringing out like an urban gamelan. It’s a reminder that even the structures we walk on daily contain hidden voices, waiting for the right ear to hear them.

Listening to “Kleine Geluiden” feels like stepping into an alternate reality where objects speak in hushed tones and the smallest disturbances ripple outward with profound significance. Kunrad doesn’t demand attention; he merely suggests that perhaps we’ve been listening wrong all along. This is music for the patient, for the curious, for those who understand that a single drop of water can, in the right circumstances, sound like a waterfall. Vito Camarretta

via Chain DLK