“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