PRESS :
“Cursed Lagoon” is the standout of Ott’s creations. There is a darkness that creeps just below the surface (...)" THE WIRE, ADVENTURES IN MODERN MUSIC
"To strive ~ whether romantically or musically ~ is to achieve a certain nobility, no matter what the eventual outcome; here, Ott restores dignity to doomed love." A CLOSER LISTEN
"Without peer, Christine Ott’s “Tabu” explores the subdued and the sublime." BEATH SLOTH
"A great work" THE MODERNS
"The music - which can be regarded as contemporary classical, but also more than that - appeals to the imagination." GONZO
"The movie is the conductor! For the intentions, the energy, but also for the tempi to use, the dynamic. Then I think there are no rules. Each movie gives its own life to the composition." Christine Ott's INTERVIEW WITH ATTN:MAG -> www.attnmagazine.co.uk/features/11028
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Just a few months after the release of her highly acclaimed album, Only Silence Remains, Christine Ott proposed a new album to Gizeh Records for its Dark Peak Series of releases. Tabu is an original, live soundtrack, composed in 2012 for the movie of the same name by F.W. Murnau and Robert Flaherty and a performance that she's playing regularly as a ciné-concert throughout France and Europe.
The magic, the beauty and the incredible light of the movie associated to its astonishing modernity have contributed to the choice of the composer. Christine has been shattered and very moved by the movie, the story of an impossible love on Bora-Bora island, between Matahi, a young pearl diver, and Reri, a young woman promised to the gods. The circumstances of the death of Murnau, prematurely died in a car accident before the film premiere, emphasizes the mystery around this movie. More than a ciné-concert, Ott's creation is a black pearl, as is Murnau's ultimate movie.
Ott's creation alternates avant-garde tracks with Ondes martenot and modern-classic piano pieces, sometimes light and delicate, sometimes dark and funereal. This cinematographic journey is ending with the original version of Tempête, composed for the last scene of the movie, a stunning piece that Ott re-worked for Only Silence Remains.
With Tabu, Christine Ott combines her passion for images and cinema to musical composition, creating new sound territories along the way. After lots of experiments down different paths, and collaborations with the likes of Yann Tiersen, Radiohead, Tindersticks, Syd Matters and Foudre!, Ott here releases her taste for a kind of
minimalistic chamber music.
"Christine Ott is giving us, with this new album, her first inspiration to the screen - spontaneous and sometimes fragile. There is indeed a secret link which joins together Reri, daughter of the water, to Christine, sister of the Ondes Martenot. In these pure moments when Ott’s piano becomes a waterfall, a river, an ocean. In these heartbreaking moments when the composer, without ever over-playing manages to simply let go, thanks to a very mysterious and fascinating instrument, the tears that the audience may not always dare to have". [Thierry Méranger, Les Cahiers du Cinéma]
TABU
2017
1. First Chapter - Paradise
2. Reri
3. Consolation
4. Course Vers La Mer
5. Hitu, La Grande Montagne
6. Sorrow / Lover's Dance
7. The Warning
8. Paradise Lost
9. Oriental Dance
10. Mandat d'Arrêt / La Perle
11. Hitu's Appearance
12. Cursed Lagoon
13. Hitu's Shadow
14. Le Sourire de Matahi / Consolation (Var. I)
15. Comptoir Chinois
16. Consolation (Variation II)
17. Rêve & Perle Noire
18. Tempête / The Tabu
All tracks composed & performed by Christine Ott
with Torsten Böttcher on 2, 6 & 9
The live soundtrack "Tabu, a story of the south seas",
created in 2012 on the movie by F.W. Murnau & Robert Flaherty
Christine Ott : Piano, Ondes Martenot, Percussions
Torsten Böttcher : Hang
Recorded and mixed by Nicolas Desvernois
Additionnal mixing by Benoît Burger
Edited by Tim Hay
CD artwork, design and packaging by Richard Knox & Claire Brentnall
