Lionel Marchetti - RISS (L'Avalanche) (Erewhon, 2002)

1 RISS (L'Avalanche) 15:30

Lionel Marchetti is a young and brilliant composer of musique concrete, with a growing body of work released on Metamkine, Selektion and, more recently, Ground Fault and Intransitive. He also dedicates himself to improvisation, in duo with Jérôme Noetinger (manipulating objects, microphones and loudpeakers), or within ensembles such as Le Cube and Archipel.

"RISS", with its suggestive subtitle ("l'avalanche"), is a 15 minute piece of musique concrete produced in 1990, already asserting a very personal universe and a strong set of themes. A female character attempts to impose her brittle voice in a landscape of ice and distress which slowly turns out to be an extension of her own inner space. A particularly evocative imaginary sound world, a staggering dramatic tension succeed in making of "RISS" a powerful miniature, and definitely confirm the early talent of Lionel Marchetti among a new generation of composers reinventing musique concrete.
Erewhon

Courte pièce électroacoustique composée en 1990, Riss de Lionel Marchetti est une oeuvre de jeunesse mais témoigne d'une maîtrise époustouflante; le son, tantôt caressant, tantôt agressif et mordant, transperce l'auditeur à mesure que le froid envahit les membres d'une infortunée prisonnière d'un piège de glace aux contours indéfinis. Mais lorsque celle-ci décrit sa lente agonie, ajoutant ainsi à la tension dramatique, qui, de nous ou de la misérable victime, se retrouve finalement captif, enfermé dans ces masses aux frontières floues? Glacial mais magistral.
Octopus

Metamkine's Cinema Pour L'oreille series of Musique Concrete 3" releases has been one of those essential collections - the things that even the critics buy! Why start an Erewhon review this way? Well, Marchetti (as well as other work, including one in 2002_05) has had two disks on Metamkine, and this 1990 work would fit easily in the series (and indeed the internal layout seems to be an homage to the original Metamkine one).

Deceptively simple, it is based around a text (written and read) by Anne Decoret, that recurs through the piece between the sound interludes. My monolinguality frustrates me here - I am sure that the texts adds to the musical experience: the title and cover image suggests snow-related aspects and I think there is reference to an ice palace and tomb in the final stages. Anyway, Decoret has a delivery that suggests a meaningfullness and intensity, lightly manipulated and with a bed of simple and extended tones to support her.

The interludes, in contrast, are dense and dramatic: bird noises surrounded by big grinding tones, strings stretched to breaking, swirling around. Softer tense rumblings and breath-intakes, percussive, whispers and distant voices, shimmering coldness. Slowly spiralling tones down into the crinkling, sliding, uncertainty of the ice. Pops, crackling with tonal music within, pulsing. Birds throughout.

This is an exciting piece of music and I have no idea how it could have sat around since 1990. Whyever, it is great that it is now available, and provides an intense aural-visual experience.
Ampersand Etcetera

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