Denis Smalley is a notable UK electroacoustic composer who I associate with the University of East Anglia (where he taught for a time), but he also studied at Ina-GRM, University of York, and under Olivier Messiaen. Today’s record Vues spectrales mostly focuses on works realised in the last 20 years or so, and Spectral Lands, Ringing Down The Sun and Resounding are all informed by subtle ideas about “spectral spatiality”, resonant sounds, and evocations of the great outdoors. If there’s any linkage between the three, it might be something to do with using natural decay to express the gradual fading-away of the universe, and this entropic theme is manifested in everything from recordings of church bells to the winds sweeping over a beach in New Zealand. All of these are (I assume) largely digital in their realisation, and there’s barely a single recognisable sound on offer, so thorough have been Smalley’s electroacoustic transformations. However, the CD also includes a much earlier work, Vortex, from 1981-1982, which appeared on the Interpenetrations LP from 1984 which I happen to own. Vortex has more substance to savour by way of drama and dynamics, and somehow succeeds in invoking the sense of a physical sculpture, with dimension, weight, and heft. It also conveys the “real and imaginary motion” which the composer was aiming at.

To Vues spectrales, του Νεοζηλανδού ηλεκτροακουστικού συνθέτη και οργανίστα, Denis Smalley, συγκεντρώνει τρία απ’ τα πολυκαναλικά του έργα γραμμένα μεταξύ 2001 και 2011, τα οποία μετάτρεψε σε stereo ήχο. Υπάρχει, επίσης, ένα ακόμη από το 1982 (“Vortex”). Περίπου 15’ το καθένα τροχοδρομούν μέσα σε αμπιεντικά και ατμοσφαιρικά ηχοτοπία εμπλουτισμένα με field recordings γεμάτα κελαηδίσματα πουλιών, ήχους άνεμου μέσω φύλλων —μεταλλικά χτυπήματα, κρουστά από άδεια μπουκάλια, κουδούνια και sci-fi ατμόσφαιρα. Το παλιότερο κομμάτι, περισσότερο χαοτικό, θυμίζει μάλλον σάουντρακ του Doctor Who!

Bleiben wir bei DENIS SMALLEY und seiner ‘spectral spatiality’, auch wenn Patrick Ascio- ne sie mit seiner ‘spatial polyphony’ locker überbietet. Im Vorgriff auf Vues spectrales (IMED 21172) und ‘Spectral Lands’ (2010-11), das die Aura der Golden Bay im heimatlichen Neuseeland ambig und abstrakt (statt ambient und illusionistisch) verschmilzt mit dem weltflüchtigen Geist, der von den okzitanischen Corbières emaniert. Die Sonne, der Wind, in Tablettenform zirpend, dröhnend, flötend, rieselnd, statt touristischer Werbung eher mit einsiedlerischem Anhauch. In ‘Ringing Down the Sun’ (2001-02) schimmert und dongt, homöopathisch in Klangschalen eingefangen, das Läuten, das bei den Dänen ‘ringer solen ned’ heißt: Die Sonne auf und nieder läuten. Durch das Bimbam der St. Adalbero-Glocken früh um 7 und als Abendläuten habe ich davon einen Begriff. Bei ‘Resounding’ (2003-04) dongen die Glockenwellen raumgreifend weiter, als hohler Ölfassbeat und orgelnd. Ähnlich wie “The Pulse of Time” ist “Vortex” (1981-82) schließlich noch ein Rückgriff in Smalleys jüngere Jahre und in seinem dröhnenden, surrenden, nadelspitzen und sirenenjauligen Wirbel verbunden mit dem kollegialen Andenken an Tim Souster (1943-1994).

L’esplicazione di uno spettro per Smalley non richiede comunque che l’ascolto sia univocamente rivolto ad un’immagine specifica. Potremmo dire che Smalley le ammette tutte e in Vues spectrales si possono fare considerazioni solo sulla base delle indicazioni fornite dal compositore e dal suo interesse ad ottenere stimoli dai paesaggi, dalla natura o dal costrutto fono assorbente dei luoghi visitati: l’indole ispiratrice qui sta nei suoni di Golden Bay e Corbiéres, nel movimento “vorticale”, nell’aggregato dei suoni che accompagna il ringen solen ned danese e nello studio degli spazi di risonanza degli oggetti. La trasformazione timbrica che incide sul riconoscimento dell’origine della fonte (il cosiddetto écoute réduite di Schaeffer) e di cui Smalley fa uso frequentissimo è l’arma principale su cui fossilizzare il nostro giudizio: nessun concretista si sognerebbe di sbilanciarsi su significati che vadano oltre quello strettamente sonoro, ma per uno come me che crede ad un valore metafisico della musica si tratta di mettere in ordine le cose in maniera differente; con Smalley non si tratta certamente di iper-realismo fine a sé stesso, ma di un’evidenza sonora laica, che regge da oltre 70 anni un mondo di suoni venuto alla ribalta grazie agli ausili dell’elettronica.

Vues spectrales gathers together three of Denis Smalley’s multichannel works from between 2001 and 2011, converted to stereo. (It also bolts on one older work Vortex from 1982, more about which later on.)

Each of the formerly-multichannel works is a roughly 15-minute, ambience-driven, atmospheric construction that are dominated by great swathes of space and patience. Spectral Lands is, as the title suggests, something of a landscape portrait, with moderately natural-sounding rustlings akin to bird noises and wind through trees, but with more alien and ambiguous sonics grafted in to increase the complexity.

Ringing Down The Sun, by way of contrast, feels somewhat more alien. Low metallic rumbles open, hollow bottle-like distant melodies follow but at such a low level that you suspect you might be imagining them. There’s a tale being told here — not with excessive drama, but with a few more percussive and unexpected twists — and it’s gently sci-fi, but with a dose of introspective sorrow.

Resounding opens with a bell, then silence, before adopting a variety of other quite church-like tones of hammering and reverberation for something which manages to remain ambient and sparse yet have a dose of theatricality about it as well.

The older work Vortex is markedly different. While there are still periods of breathing space, it’s much busier and at times more chaotic, with a decidedly Radiophonic Workshop feel at times, very much reminiscent of the Doctor Who soundtrack work from around or just before 1982 when it was created. It’s curious, but without offering up a strong reason for it having been dug up, or attached to a series of more measured and more recent works with which it arguably doesn’t belong.

As usual, Empreintes Digitales has unearthed some intriguing pieces from the archive, and while there’s no revelations or masterworks in here, it’s certainly a collection of interesting textures.