LABEL INTRODUCTION :
The future is in the past. Almost a century since their invention by Maurice Martenot in France at the beginning of the 1920s, the Ondes Martenot have shaken contemporary music by inviting the electronic and electrical fairies to the ball of – then acoustic – instruments of the repertoire. Remnants of a pivotal period in the discovery of new sound tools, little known to the general public unlike the theremin, the Ondes Martenot are nevertheless one of the very first monophonic and experimental synthesizers in history, combining electronics and mechanics with artistic lutherie making: an exceptional instrument offering its very rare players an infinite range of timbres, textures and sound research.
Consecrated by the avant-garde composers Olivier Messiaen, Edgard Varèse, André Jolivet, Tristan Murail, Giancito Scelsi or Bernard Parmegiani, the mysterious and sensitive vibrations of the Ondes Martenot have migrated throughout the 20th century in popular music (Léo Ferré, Brian Ferry, Tom Waits, Radiohead, Daft Punk...), as well as in the cinema where their palette of sounds that can be shaped to infinity and their often very expressive playing (close to the human voice or the cello) have bewitched science fiction and certain dreamlike dramas (Fantomas, Lawrence of Arabia, Ghostbusters, Mars Attacks!, Amélie, 35 Rhums, There Will Be Blood, Minute Bodies...). Present on numerous recordings of the classical/contemporary repertoire, having narrowly escaped oblivion at the death of their inventor in 1980, the Ondes Martenot had never before been used solo on a whole album of contemporary music.
Chimères (pour Ondes Martenot) was born out of the desire of NAHAL Recordings and Christine Ott (virtuoso ondist and multi-instrumentalist teaching at the Strasbourg Conservatory) to offer an unprecedented album, entirely conceived using only her Ondes Martenot. If Christine Ott has often accompanied other musicians on Ondes Martenot (Yann Tiersen, Tindersticks, Raphelson, Dominique A, Syd Matters, Oiseaux- Tempête, FOUDRE!...), it is the first time that she decides to place her strange instrument at the center of her compositions, entrusting the musical production to Paul Régimbeau (Mondkopf) and Frédéric D. Oberland (Oiseaux-Tempête) manipulating the original sound waves live via effect boxes and sonic modulations external to the instrument. A solo album made with several hands that plunges the precious matrix, via a current repertoire half composed/half improvised, in the prism of the last hundred years of experimental music, electronic culture and habitus to synthetic sounds.
Christine Ott's eight Chimeras are like snatches of distant dreams, whispers of ghosts, echoes of rustle and symphonies that once inhabited the instrument, seeming to have travelled through the ages without losing their power and relevance. The composer Christine Ott tells a cosmic journey with cinematographic colours, which rubs shoulders with electronic stars and caresses incandescent planets. A nebula of layers of waves superimposed and triturated by effects that make her songs sometimes robotic, sometimes celestial. A sonic and sensual magma, radiant, as if weightless.
The original chemigrams illustrating the cover have been made by contemporary artist Fanny Béguély by painting with chemicals on old photosensitive sheets of paper, while listening to the tracks on the record.
SELECTED PESS :
POPMATTERS (US) "Christine Ott brings the Ondes Martenot to new heights with the mesmerizing Chimères"
THE BROOKLYN RAIL (US) "Gorgeous, fascinating, and compelling sounds, the kind of avant-garde music making that can speak directly to a broad audience"
BAD TO THE BONE (FR) -"Comme un traité d’alchimie, Chimères se donne avec une nappe de mystères qu’on ne se lasse de vouloir déceler écoutes après écoutes. L’expérience auditive — intense, introspective, narrative, visuelle — évoque, avec des morceaux tels que Eclipse, Laurie Spiegel, Tim Hecker et la violence des drones de Mika Vainio. (...) une oeuvre charnière dans l’histoire de l’artiste et de la musique expérimentale"
THE SOUND NOT THE WORD (UK) - 'It is a haunting, evocative listen, that inherently recalls classic horror and sci-fi soundtracks; but also demonstrates Ott’s own talents as a modern classical composer and musician. Christine Ott has created an album of distinctive character, full of striking beauty and terror, the effects of which will linger long after the record has finished playing.
DNA (FR) "L'ondiste a créé huit pièces pour son instrument de prédilection. Huit Chimères empreintes de liberté, de sauvagerie et d'une beauté farouche".
UNDERSCORE MUSIC MAGAZINE (UK) - “Sirius evokes both Sergei Prokofiev and Daniel Lopatin in the way its dual stars rotate, interact and react against each other. (...) Balancing a delicate swell of string sounds against a haunting reverberation of fading technology, it demonstrates perfectly two sides of the Ondes Martenot’s personality as well as Ott’s expertise in manipulating the notoriously difficult instrument. Chimères will hopefully help propel his electric myna bird closer to the public conscience where it belongs"
THE WIRE, ADVENTURES IN MODERN MUSIC
RTS ESPACE 2 (SUI) - ''un disque au souffle très électro, parfois post-rock, dont tous les sons trouvent leur origine dans ses ondes singulières''
CHIMÈRES (POUR ONDES MARTENOT)
2020
1. Comma
2. Darkstar
3. Todeslied
4. Mariposas
5. Sirius
6. Pulsar
7. Eclipse
8. Burning
• • •
Vinyl, CD, Digital - Nahal Recordings
Effects and live processing by Frédéric D. Oberland & Paul Régimbeau (Mondkopf) // Recorded & mixed by Romain Poirier at Mer Noir, Paris, between Winter 2018 and Autumn 2019 // Edited, arranged & produced by Paul Régimbeau & Frédéric D. Oberland // Mastered by James Plotkin // Original chemigrams artwork by Fanny Béguély // Graphic design by Thibault Proux
Special thanks to Jean-Loup Dierstein, Mathieu Gabry, Lorraine Bouchet, Renaud de Foville, Julie Gamberoni.
