Natasha Barrett, 1972 in England geboren, studierte Elektroakustik bei Jonty Harrison und Denis Smalley und lebt und arbeitet heute in Oslo. Norwegen ist keineswegs die elektroakustische Diaspora wie zu Zeiten Arne Nordheims, dessen Pionierwerke 1967 — 72 noch in Warschau entstanden sind. Barrett steht heute das Osloer NoTAM-Studio zur Verfügung und mit dem Ultima in Oslo, dem Ilios in Harstad und dem Music Factory in Bergen sogar drei Festivals, um ihre mit diversen Preisen gewürdigten Soundscapes zu präsentieren. Auf Isostasie (IMED 0262) erklingen sechs Kompositionen der Jahre 1998 bis 2001: Three Fictions (Northern Mix), Displaced:Replaced, Red Snow, Viva la Selva!, The Utility of Space und Industrial Revelations. Barretts algorithmische Haikus kreisen ausnahmslos um Naturerscheinungen — Wald, Regen, Wind, Nebel, Schnee, die Mitternachtssonne. Oft sind es meteorologische oder räumliche Phänomene, die eigentlich nur im synästhetischen Sinne ‘hörbar’ sind. Allerdings scheinen Barrett nicht so sehr die Naturklangbilder als solche zu fesseln, sondern ihre durch elektroakustische Verdichtung und Konkretisierung spürbar gemachten Effekte auf Psyche und Stimmung. Hören wird so zu einer Form des Nachspürens und Nachsinnens über das Eingetauchtsein in ein gewelltes, getöntes, temperiertes, belichtetes Environment.

Don’t miss this excellent quartet of improvisers at Casa del Popolo (Montréal) January 30, 2003. With musicians Martin Tétreault (turntables), i8u (electronics), Michel F Côté (drums, electronics) and Magali Babin (guitar pick-up and small objects).

Oral presents an eavening in two steps at O Patro Vys (Montréal) January 17, 2003. Firstly, a concert and CD launch with Christof Migone, Le Pétomane and Martin Tétreault followed by the musics of Orazio Fantini and turntablist Endless.

Not so long ago, electronic music was the province of those lucky enough to be able to gain access into the squeaky clean labs of Ircam or similar institutions, where large, impossibly expensive boxes festooned with dials and flashing lights awaited the bidding of the composer. Now that a similar level of wizardry is achievable with just the aid of a laptop, and contemporary electronica made in bedrooms all over the world enjoys cutting edge status, it’s tempting to wonder what the point of ‘classical’ electronic music actually is…

A graduate of Jonty Harrison’s B.E.A.S.T. project, Natasha Barrett’s approach is highly rigorous, borne of compositional rather than improvisational process. Though on paper her methods can seem a bit dry, her music is posessed of an overtly sensual and often awesome power that rivals anything else you’re likely to hear. Her ‘acousmatic’ techniques transform field recordings, percussion and voices into restless soundscapes that conjure up strange geographies buffetted by even stranger meteorological phenomena, cosmic forces on a massive scale or hallucinatory rainforests straight out of JG Ballard.

Barrett’s structural precision gives her pieces a strong sense of narrative as well as place. Tiny sonic fictions unravel throughout; footsteps recede over glassy, gong like tones. A door is opened, a cat enters, draws near, purrs and eats from a bowl seemingly placed in your left ear. You’re dragged through dense undergrowth packed with insects, or sat in a dripping cave listening to distant machines devouring the landscape. But most of all it’s her control of timbre that catches the ear again and again.

At times during the opening Three Fictions (Northern Mix) the immersion factor almost sent me into some deep alpha state, or the abstract sweep of millions of tiny oscillations produced such strange sensations in the small of my back I had to take my headphones off to catch my breath.

Lush, disturbing and beautiful all at once, Isostasie at once connects with the rich and strange concoctions of classic musique concrète, yet has a timeless quality lacking in the ephemeral world of contemporary electronica. Stunning.

Christof Migone has released on the first 2003 CDs with South Winds on Oral.

On May 26, 2003, at the Salle Olivier Messiaen of the Maison de Radio France (Paris), Vivienne Spiteri will premiere her work Anahata for amplified harpshichord and live electronics.