Christina Vantzou - No4 - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

2018 . Belgium-based composer Christina Vantzou's fourth full-length for Kranky ventures further into the uniquely elusive and evocative mode of ambient classical minimalism which has become her signature a fragile synthesis of contemplative drift, heady silences, and muted dissonance. In regards to the album she speaks of focusing particular attention on the effects of the recordings on the body, and of Inchdirecting sound perception into an inner space.Inch No. 4 took shape across roughly two years, incorporating a diverse array of musical and conceptual collaborators, including fellow Kranky artists Steve Hauschildt and John Also Bennett (of Forma) as well as Angel Deradoorian (ex-Dirty Projectors), Clarice Jensen, Beatrijs de Klerck, and members of Belgium's Echo Collective. During the creation process Vantzou wanted to Inchblur lines of hierarchy,Inch and thus allowed all ensemble members and technical assistants to add or delete elements. Despite such a spectrum of input the eleven tracks feel distinctly cohesive, weaving elegant textures and resonant open spaces within a twilit landscape of eclectic instrumentation piano, harp, vibraphone, voice, strings, marimba, synthesizers, gong, and bells. A mindset of premeditated exploration informs the album's emotive textural intuition, with hushed drones and delicate gestures eliding in the periphery of the mix. Vantzou cites sleep and Inchthe loosening of timeInch as two formative practices in her private and professional life, which manifests in the quietly hallucinatory properties of her music. No. 4 feels both endless and ephemeral, immersive and immaterial. It's a music of horizon lines and half-light, mapped with feeling and foresight. Album Tracks 1. Glissando for Bodies and Machines in Space 2. Percussion in Nonspace 3. At Dawn 4. Doorway 5. Some Limited and Waning Memory 6. No. 4 String Qua