RADIOFRANCE.COM « Le trio brouille les pistes et les références, orientales, occidentales ou d’un autre monde »
LES OREILLES CURIEUSES « une bande-son immersive qui nous offre des sensations fortes comme jamais. »
VEIL OF SOUND « Music somehow timeless and without a distinct space but everlasting and everywhere »
GONZO « An ideal soundtrack for dawn »
INTRODUCTION BY CHRISTINE IN SOM, April 2021 :
« Rather than an evocation of death as we could imagine, the album “Time To Die” is to me more a reflection and a questioning about humanity, and a story of humility in front of the mysteries of death and its thousand facets. “Time To Die” is closely linked to the album “Only Silence Remains” also released by Gizeh records in 2016. The album ends with the track “Disaster” accompanied by a poetic text I wrote and interpreted by my friend Casey Brown. The essential idea was to share a tribute for the conscience of our universe given over to the cruelty, violence and irresponsibility of man in front of nature, and an invitation to remain awake and vigilant in front of the outside world. And, the final note was a note of love and hope…
At the time of the composition of these two albums, I had in mind very strong images of several science-fiction films, which moved me enormously and which suggested many thoughts to me. These movies always accompany me ; they are all adaptations of novels, intimately linked and carried by inventive literary stories which reveal parallel worlds to us, always with a character who takes the role of a “mediator”. I am of course first of all thinking of “Blade Runner”, but also of “Metropolis” by Fritz Lang who influenced Ridley Scott with its urban settings, its immense towers, and the opposition of social classes within this dystopian megalopolis! But i’m also thinking about “Soylent Green” by Richard Fleisher… And in another way, of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings Trilogy…
It seemed obvious to me to start again from Rutger Hauer’s monologue “Tears in Rain”, whose ending is improvised by the actor himself, a powerful and moving ending! With the last words of Rutger Hauer, the important thing is to understand that it is not only a question of dying, but of no longer having access to the Immortality which had been promised to him by his “creator”. Roy understands everything and it is a liberation for him. Like any human, he understands that learning to live is also learning to die. Life is unique and you have to live it fully because we are only passing birds… And it evokes those moments of ephemeral beauty…
I entrusted the end of this monologue to my friend Casey Brown, who interpreted it beautifully, in a very personal way from his home in Los Angeles. His voice is enveloped by a whirlwind of synthesizers, Jupiter 8 and several tracks from Ondes Martenot mixed with rain and thunderstorm… All this is very cinematographic I believe, and there are in these two albums (of a future triptych) multiple tributes to these essential films, but also to this incredible actor and very engaged man, Rutger Hauer who left us the year before, when I was working on the album.
The album “Time To Die” reveals a kaleidoscope of sensations and colors, a path strewn with reflections on the double, the reflection of ourselves, sometimes imbued with symbolism, like the rain, it could be the evocation of the flood or simple degradation of the Earth by humans ? In “Time to Die”, I wanted to express the imminence of death, revealed by the inevitable motif of the timpani. And it moves towards the melancholy and loneliness of “Brumes”, the clarity of “Miroirs”, the appeasement and calm of “Landscape”… I have written the album as a journey; we are carried away by the waves of an ocean of feelings, immersed in heavy and oppressive atmospheres, resurgences of beautiful moments of life, and also in an atmosphere of light and deliverance!
The album opens with “Time To Die” and ends with “Pluie”, two very orchestrated tracks which surround other more minimalist and refined musical pieces such as “Miroirs”, totally improvised like “Chasing Harp”, or even very composed like ” Comma Opening “… Over the soundscapes, I wanted to let the emotions free and appeal to the individual prism of each. Perhaps each piece, each emotion on the record could refer to a color – it is perhaps a secret link that I have with the world of musical colors of Ginette and Maurice Martenot. As children, they liked to associate a note to a color. Maybe also an unconscious connection to the universe of Olivier Messiaen where the tones are associated with a world of colors… “Miroirs” shimmers with bursts of light and plunges us into a yellow halo, “Time To Die” reveals its powerful black lines which appear in the translucent blue… And i found these colors and this transparency in the engraving by Renaud Allirand which illustrates the album.»
Photo by David Rothon
SELECTED PRESS :
LIVE EYE TV « Theodore Wild Ride craft art that moves effortlessly between borders just as it slides between past and present to create the possibilities of a new future. »
A CLOSER LISTEN « The oud is the secret weapon of Theodore’s Wild Ride, whose diverse, self-titled album straddles the worlds of folk, rock and modern composition. (...) a set that is simultaneously contemplative and enthralling »
NEW MUSICAL HORIZONS « Ce premier album de Theodore Wild Ride est ce que j’appellerais un appel. Un appel à faire le vide, un appel à être plus attentif aux choses qui paraissent non significatives, un appel du vide pour faire le vide dans des esprits trop surchargés d’informations inutiles. Un appel à se coucher dans le noir et se laisser rêver. »
THEODORE WILD RIDE
2021
Vinyl / CD / Digital / Streaming
1. Little House
2. Squirrel Creek
3. Paoha
4. Appalaches
5. Clearwater
6. Zeppelins
• • •
+ MELODIASHOP (sk)
Vinyl, CD, Digital - Icarus Records
in partnership with Consouling Sounds
All music composed by Theodore Wild Ride
Theodore Wild Ride is :
Christine Ott — Ondes Martenot, Piano, Mellotron & Effects
Mathieu Gabry — Piano, Mellotron, Keyboards, Effects
Ophir Levy — Oud
Recorded at the Wurth Museum Auditorium, Erstein in July 2019 // Mixed by Benoit Burger & Mathieu Gabry in April 2020 // Mastered by Lawrence English in April 2021 // Artwork and Layout by Jeroen De Wandel
i10 & SOULCLXII
Icarus Records & Consouling Sounds, 2021
