Monday, July 31, 2023

Diving into Ethereal Realms: Christian Wittman’s “Aurelia”



Many thanks to Matt, at ELECTRONICA.ORG.UK, for this splendid review of my ambient track "Aurelia" !

 

Christian Wittman’s captivating track “Aurelia,” part of his album “Dreams and Drones,” invites listeners on a profound journey through atmospheric soundscapes inspired by the universe of French poet Gérard de Nerval. Delving into the realms of ambient and contemplative music, Wittman’s composition paints a vivid picture of misty and solitary landscapes, where introspection and imagination intertwine.

The track begins with a mesmerizing interplay of shifting chords, setting a contemplative and ambient backdrop. Evocative layers of strings and atmospheric sounds further enhance the mood, creating a meditative and dreamlike atmosphere that immerses the listener in a rich sonic tapestry. As “Aurelia” gracefully evolves, gentle melodic fragments emerge, gracefully drifting in and out of focus, akin to wisps of thoughts weaving their way through the mind.

As one of the founding members of the esteemed French group LIGHTWAVE, Christian Wittman brings years of expertise in the realms of electronic and ambient music. His compositions draw inspiration from an array of artists, including Brian Eno, Harold Budd, and Stars of the Lid, which shines through in his masterful fusion of ambient and chill-out elements.

 LINK

 

Saturday, July 29, 2023

How to survive in the new musical ecosystem?

 


I'm going to repeat myself again...

I would really like to thank all the mediators, journalists, bloggers, podcast and radio show programmers for the immense work you do...

I know just how much work is involved, listening to the tracks submitted to you, organizing a playlist or a podcast, writing a critical review, making your readers and listeners want (or not) to discover and support little-known artists.

You do a fantastic job...

The most mainstream and commercial artists have their own promotion networks, often with big budgets...

Independent musicians... depend on you....

Whether it's electronic and ambient music, or, I imagine, rock, rap, jazz, folk that escapes the music business...

I know that many of you are passionate music lovers, experts in this ambient / electronic music genre, which you've been listening to for years...

I'd just like to say to all of you that the energy and passion you put into supporting musicians like me, your loyalty and professionalism, are major incentives for me to continue my musical journey, and to live up to your trust and support!

Friday, July 28, 2023

Reconsidering Space Music: A Work in Progress

 

I'm currently working on a new album project, The Story of the Sun, Moon, and Stars.

This album draws its inspiration and artwork from a vintage book by a woman, Agnes Giberne, under this title, published in Cincinnati in 1898.




This was the heyday of imaginative, conquering and speculative astronomy, a telescopic astronomy, driven by such great figures as Jules Vernes, Camille Flammarion, Percival Lowell...

This detour into late 19th-century astronomy frees me from the stereotypes of space music or cosmic music of the early 21st century.

In these compositions, I have sought to reconnect with a fascination for space, where science and imagination, dreams and observations intertwine, to create a new language: a language to describe celestial immensities, a visual language to represent them in the form of drawings and engravings, and of course a musical language to express the moods of an earthly observer lost in cosmic infinity via a telescope.

My music explores these infinite spaces, following the threads of sensations, thoughts, memories and feelings of an observer lost in the meanders of a cosmic reverie...


Wednesday, July 26, 2023

"A collection of purely atmospheric and cosmic tracks" (Review of Orion Nebula)

 


 This is a sonic journey through C.W.'s many styles that we undertake without too much difficulty

 

I've been trying to review a Christian Wittman album for a long time. We exchanged a few e-mails in which he sent me links to download his music so that I could begin a series of reviews of his works. The problem! Every time I put one of his albums between my ears, he'd make another and post it on his Bandcamp site. In fact, this member of the mythical French band Lightwave, a group co-founded with Christoph Harbonnier in the mid-80's which is still very active, and which had ex-Tangerine Dream keyboardist Paul Haslinger as its 3rd musician, replacing Serge Leroy, produces albums in a speed that the ears can't find the time needed to acclimatize, to tame such a large number of music releases. I finally gave up! Little was heard of Christian Wittman in the past years. He returned to the spheres of electronic music (EM) in the early 20's. Since then, he has released over 50 download albums featuring his experiments in electro-acoustic music, his Dark Ambient works nourished by the suspense of space, and/or simply his cosmic ambient music. Like with ORION NEBULA, an album without rhythmic life, but loaded with an atmospheric one. But above all, this is the French musician-synthesist's first album on a major label, Cyclical Dreams.

Nursery of Stars lets us hear immediately what the almost 60 minutes of ORION NEBULA will be made of. A synth layer, shaded with a metallic blue hue, floats peacefully into an opening that traces one of the many musical milky ways of Whitman's debut album on the Argentinian label. The French musician appropriately plays on the tonal modulations of this layer of cosmic quietude, adding color and emotion, notably with the perception of hearing the breezes of absent voices, as well as shadier hues that radiate the resplendence of astral violins, like that of the darker depths of the abyss. The contrasting tones of these chords shimmer and buzz, crumbling melodies that we finish in our heads. Most of these elements and layers woven into the blend of chords and sound effects are found on the other 8 structures of the album, with a few nuances near. Messier 42 follows with another slow, rhythmically lifeless movement. This is the quintessence of ORION NEBULA. To maintain our listening interest, the ex-Lightwave member plays with the hues of his chords, mixing them into layers that flirt as much with serenity as with anguish. This discreet duel between luminescence and its opposite constantly arouses the curiosity of our ears, even creating music that would suit films and/or documentaries on the depths of the Cosmos. Drones, astral monk murmurs and elegiac chants are drifting peacefully through Messier 42, subduing our senses and putting them inside an empty space shuttle. Interstellar Particles simulates what astral travel can be like. The music and its various elements plunge us into a state of weightlessness, where our ears float between the tinkling chords that forge the incomplete melodies found throughout the album. They create flashes of sounds between the hum of cosmic gases and the drizzles of meteorite dust. It takes just a little imagination to make you think you're in a NASA simulator.

Voice effects and tinkling chords that fall curtly are swept up and jostled in the variable forces of Sinus Magnus' buzzing winds. This track floats between Dark Ambient and experimental ambient. We're more in the Ray Lynch style with this vision of Buddhist meditative music that comes from the ever-cosmic ambiences of Trapezium Cluster. The tinkling chords that wander between tones of meditative chimes or glass tinkling for prosperity are also legion on this album. Along with the synthesizer's moans, they adorn the long, drifting movement of the ambient Molecular Cloud Complex, while imposing a small organic touch. The moans are more strident, a little like a beast in agony, in Solar Masses. The slightly fluty shadow that emerges to blow melodies mixed in these hues brings a sibylline nuance to this track. That flirts more with Christian Wittman's Dark Ambient style. The orchestrations, woven between oboe and violin textures, temper this vision a little as they travel to our ears. Stellar Winds is a bit like Sinus Magnus, with its pulsating vibrations and layers of iridescent screeching, where we can even hear a stridulation of intergalactic locusts and birds from Mars humming a tune for a black spring. Gravitational Collapse ends ORION NEBULA's vision of dark ambient music, where we feel more like we're in a cave than in space. Although the vibrating, droning synth wave takes us back there momentarily. Except that there's always the lapping of suspended water and the chthonian murmurs that surround these ambiences drifting between the depths of the Earth and the beginning of the Cosmos. Which is very likely!

Everything that comes from Cyclical Dreams is proposed in a vision where EM turns to be a more accessible art form. And so, it is with this ORION NEBULA! Without being as accessible as the word suggests, this collection of purely atmospheric and cosmic tracks by Christian Wittman flirts with the kind of musical poetry that can take us on a journey through his styles without too much difficulty.

Sylvain Lupari (July 11th, 2023)

SynthSequences.com

Available at Cyclical Dreams Bandcamp

 

Creating my Path

 


 

 Should a musician trust his or her instinct and feeling? I have currently two works in progress... "Music for Planetarium" and "Escape". I feel I am going forward and deeper in my musical quest... During the composing, mixing, sound treatment process, I sometimes feel: "That's it!" (and sometimes: "That is not it, at least not yet...").

 
I am aware I do not belong to the "easy listening" side of the ambient musical field.
But the most important, for me, is to follow my path, or rather, to create the path I want to follow.
 
Out of respect and loyalty for those who love my music, and for all the mediators who pass it on, I'm determined to remain myself, to remain faithful to my musical project...

Saturday, July 22, 2023

Music for Art Gallery I

 

This album, "Music for Art Gallery I", is inspired by the world of contemporary art - sculptures, video installations, performances, painting - and invites you to a journey through some of the great art capitals of today, from New York to Amsterdam, from Berlin to Athens, from Rome to Los Angeles.

These eight compositions are both ambient and experimental, they are at the crossroads of minimalism, a certain acousmatic abstraction and sound design...

I tried to suggest through sound design the sensory, visual, tactile, spatial universe of contemporary art, with its surfaces, its materiality, its geometry, its perspective games, its architectures of lines and shapes.

"Music for Art Gallery I" is, in a way, a continuation of my album series "Ambient Mapping", "Sound Painting" and "Music for Installations".

It is an ambient music that unfolds contemplative atmospheres in a slow travelling of the gaze and the mind on virtual works, that the listener is invited to imagine....

I hope to initiate a collaboration with art galleries and contemporary artists to inscribe my sound research in real places


Electronics, sound design: Christian Wittman
Special guest: The Warburg String Quartet

Artwork: Thierry Moreau

Recorded and produced at Nina Studio, Paris, December 2022.


 


REVIEWS


—  "Conceived as a multi-sensory experiential piece best suited for visual accompaniment of a gallery, the French artist Christian Wittman’s “Manhattan” is a lovely slice of experimental ambient work that finds its home in various nexuses of a venn diagram of several musical schools of thought. Of the piece, Wittman states, “I tried to suggest through sound design the sensory, visual, tactile, spatial universe of contemporary art, with its surfaces, its materiality, its geometry, its perspective games, its architectures of lines and shapes.” The resulting composition is one that is easy to get lost in - all the better to take while you stroll the MOMA or Whitney in Manhattan. "
Ryan HALL (Tome of the Weather Machinetometotheweathermachine.com)

— Great sounds and cool production. Beautiful arrangements.
I really enjoyed the ethereal and mysterious mood!  Listnerd 

— "Captivating soundscapes and floating atmosphere.." Music for Home


—  "Two new albums of cosmic synth music, from the increasingly prolific French synthesist, and here you do indeed get two albums of original music without a rhythm in sight.

Of the two, “Art Gallery” is what you'd call the “busiest” as it features more of the piano/electric piano (I can never tell!!) with compositions ranging from just under 4, to over 7 minutes, and the depth of sound is fairly vast, for such a spacey album, so that, while there aren't huge arsenals of electronics, the textural qualities of the compositions, comes into play, so that it's got several layers on which to focus at any one time, layers that are constantly on the move, albeit slowly, and all the while, managing to retain every bit of emotion that you could wring out of such ethereal yet gorgeously compelling, spacetronic music.

“Windy Lands”, however, is an album that builds. Again, all cosmic, and this time more predominantly electronic, it starts very minimally, then, as the tracks progress, so the sonic canvas spreads out and stretches across the horizons, to reveal new textures, new layers and give the music more strength and depth, as it progresses, almost “orchestral”, in a minimal sense, on the final couple of tracks, and, overall, a worthy addition to the “Art” album, in that they come from the same beating heart, but travel in different directions."
Andy Garibaldi, Inkeys (UK)
 

Sounds and Colours


 
 
The starting point of my musical work is often a particular sound.
 
I try to create my own libraries of sounds, or at least to personalize pre-existing libraries, to adapt them to my listening and my sensitivity.
 
Going through the sounds of a given instrument at the beginning of a recording session is a way of looking for a primary source of inspiration, corresponding to a given moment, my state of mind, the time of day or night, the lighting around me, etc.
 
Finding the right sound, at the right time, is like a painter finding the right color, the right hue, the right vibrations, to start a new painting. 
 
Once the right sound is found, it is enough to give the first brush stroke on the canvas.
 
Once the right color is found, you just have to go to the keyboard and start sculpting the silence...

Music is a very strange thing...


 

Music is a very strange thing...
It has weird and unexpected powers...
It is not a superficial art...
Music is a way of thinking...
A way of asking questions...
A way to look for answers...
Music creates possible worlds...
And it invites us to compare them with our "real" world...
I guess true musicians, true music lovers
Live mainly in these possible worlds...
They are less desperating than our actual world...

Friday, July 21, 2023

Is musical creation just selfish?

 I just realize that I am creating the music I love to listen to... 

Is musical creation just selfish? I mean, I decide if a track, a mix, a mood, a sound is worth to be kept, used, shared in an album. And I delete a lot of drafts.. I am following my ear, my feeling, my intuition... I guess I need to be surrounded by music in my real life... 

I am very eclectic, jazz, ambient, classical, opera, world music, acousmatic, rock, shoegaze... 

My own music has a kind of fine, inner, personal tuning... It is the music I dream to listen to, sometimes, in the future... 

My solo albums are just an attempt to reach this horizon, to create the music I am so intimately tuned to...

Impressionnism (Work in Progress)


 "Impressionism" is one of my current album projects, which is almost complete. It draws its inspiration from nineteenth-century French Impressionist painting by Manet, Monet and Van Gogh, and the particular sensory universe that accompanies it: steamy landscapes, the play of light, reflections on water, moving lights that create unexpected reliefs in a landscape.

The music is minimalist, a little abstract at times, unfolding sensitive, evolving soundscapes in an aesthetic close to classical chamber music, crossed by electronic sounds and textures.

This is a direction I intend to follow and explore in the future, blending multiple influences from French chamber music (Debussy, Satie...), the ambient music of Brian Eno and Harold Budd, and the contemporary classical movement embodied by artists such as Ólafur Arnalds, Nils Frahm, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Max Richter and Arvo Pärt...

I'm looking for a record label that might be interested in this project!

 

 

My Ambient Mix on RadiOzora

 

I'm delighted to share with you the ambient mix I produced for Radiozora, the Hungarian FM radio station that broadcasts superb programs of ambient, psychedelic and chill-out music...
I owe my debut as an ambient DJ to an invitation from the UK label Disco Gecko Recordings, to coincide with the release of my album "Shadows of Fading Time" 
 
 
My music and that of Lightwave merge and intertwine with that of musicians I admire and who make up my current soundtrack... Brian Eno, Harold Budd, Andrew Heath, Warren Ellis and Nick Cave, Olafur Arnalds, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Valentin Silvestrov...
This mix lasts 01:39, and takes the listener from tranquil, ethereal atmospheres to the heart of the synthetic storms of Lightwave's Uraniborg... A journey through the different spaces of electronic music....
 
 

The Mixing Step

 


Thoughts and afterthoughts (of an ambient musician...)
 
The mixing step is probably the most creative... It gives shapes to a rough idea... It allows the recording of basic tracks to become a listenable piece.. It is a matter of balance, of fine tuning, of space and depth, of levels too, of course... I love this step, because, obviously, so many different pieces could result from my choices, while mixing my basic tracks...
 
Mixing is a matter of fine tuning, of aesthetic decisions, of feeling, of choices...
 
Usually, I make several mixes of my basic tracks. 
 
Each of them could be a different piece.
 
Most of the time, I make my mind on a particular mix that becomes the final mix...
 
When I feel it is the right one, and that I could probably not do a better one...

Christian Wittman Takes Us on a Serene Journey with “Evanescent Shades” (electronica.org.uk)

 

"Christian Wittman, a founding member of the renowned French group LIGHTWAVE, has embarked on a new solo endeavor with his latest album “Nocturnes I.” One of the standout tracks from this captivating release is the mesmerizing “Evanescent Shades,” an ambient composition that delicately weaves together ethereal tones and atmospheric textures.

From the very first notes, “Evanescent Shades” exudes a warm and inviting aura. The organ-like tones gently ebb and flow throughout the track, creating a sense of movement and progression. Wittman masterfully crafts a sonic landscape that evolves and transforms, leading the listener from one shade to another. It’s as if the music itself is guiding us through a series of ephemeral moments, fleeting and transient.

The minimalistic nature of the piece enhances its intimacy, drawing the listener closer to its subtle intricacies. Wittman’s expert use of electronic instruments and treatments adds depth and nuance to the composition, infusing it with a serene and contemplative atmosphere. The peacefulness conveyed by the music is palpable, inviting the listener to surrender to its soothing embrace.

“Nocturnes I” is a collection of musical vignettes that chronicles the passage between dusk and dawn. It is an exploration of thoughts, images, memories, and sensations that accompany us during the nocturnal hours. Wittman’s compositions create a delicate balance between wakefulness and sleep, existing on the threshold of dreams. The album paints a sonic portrait of the tranquil moments when the world quiets down, and silence intertwines with the murmurs of the night.

As a seasoned musician with a rich history in electronic and ambient music, Wittman draws inspiration from a wide array of influences. His music showcases a fusion of ambient, space, and chill-out elements, with a strong emphasis on sound design and atmospheres. Fans of artists like Brian Eno, Harold Budd, and Stars of the Lid will find a sense of familiarity in Wittman’s work, as he seamlessly blends these influences into his own unique sonic tapestry."

 

https://electronica.org.uk/blog/christian-wittman-takes-us-on-a-serene-journey-with-evanescent-shades/

Dreams and Drones

 

 

 

  "Dreams and Drones" brings together ambient and atmospheric soundscapes inspired by the universe of French poet Gérard de Nerval (1808-1855), imbued with romanticism and mystery, exploring the landscapes of the unconscious in the mirror of ancient legends from the banks of the Rhine or elsewhere. Between minimalism and sound immersion, these compositions are invitations to dream and travel through misty, solitary landscapes, populated by fairies and elves who still live on the other side of the mirrors of reality...

"Dreams and Drones": Review by Uwe Saße

 


Great review of "Dreams and Drones" by Uwe Saße on Sequenzerwelten! Many thanks! 

 

---- "Dreams and Drones" is a very nice and equally interesting, as well as perhaps idiosyncratic result, if you let yourself be guided by his ideas and also still have the freedom to be able to push aside all constraints or expectations. Christian concentrates on what he does best - and you can feel this on -Dreams And Drones-! On the 8 short pieces Christian lets the moods run free - they reflect the title of the album and that in quite versatile ways. The tension only subsides after the last sounds, from beginning to end this arc of tension remains. I feel this is a really great achievement to reflect these different moods in the brevity of the individual pieces. For me the -Dreams And Drones- is one of the most versatile albums of Christian Wittman - out of the calmness and free without constraints..... Absolutely recommended :-)" 

https://sequenzerwelten.de

 

 

Ambient Spotify Playlists open to Minimal / Abstract / Experimental / Edgy Electronic Music

 

Ambient playlists on Spotify are increasingly standardized and focused on "relaxing" and "gentle" music, with an almost generalized aversion to dark ambient, and anything with a touch of abstraction, minimalism, experimentation or "edgy". 
 
At least, that's my experience, as a user of Submithub and Groover, which represents only a tiny fraction of ambient, electronic and experimental music playlists (how do you reach the rest?).
 
I'm happy to highlight the exceptions, and to thank playlist curators who have recently included some of my compositions :
 
- Texture & Dreamscapes: Psychedelic Soundscapes. Dreamy Ambient
curated by Justin Robinson
- Dystopian Soundscapes: Dark Experimental Ambient Drone
curated by Applefish
- Aembiance
curated by @ChrisLuno
- Shadow of the Colossus Atmos - Classical and Epic Music
curated by Peregrine
- Ambient Soundscapes; Experimental Swells
curated by Henrik Lauge
- Pure Ambient
curated by H-Music / Philippe
- Ambient Daily
curated by Lecode
- Sleep Ambient
curated by Chitra Records
- Neoclassical Ambient
curated by Chitra Records
- Sounds for a Peaceful Sleep
curated by Drone With me
- Sounds for an Ambient Life
curated by Drone With me
- Daily Drones
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7tertlbdBeG3HALfySaZaQ
curated by Drone With me
 
 
And here is my Spotify page for discerning and bold listeners who are not afraid of abstraction, minimalism, experimentation or "edgy" sounds 🤓:
 
 
 
 

Thursday, July 20, 2023

Nocturnes I

 

 

 

The starting point for this album is a photo taken one summer evening from a window in Dunkirk, a memory of a free reverie in front of the spectacle of a blazing twilight, where the last lights of the setting sun were about to vanish between the darkness of the Northern sea and that of the sky. "Nocturnes I" is the musical story of a night between dusk and dawn, accompanying thoughts, images, memories and sensations. Minimalist, intimate musical landscapes, where electronic instruments and treatments gently suggest peace and serenity. Ambient music between wakefulness and sleep, at the threshold of dreams, when everything calms down and silence is woven in with the murmurs of the night. "Nocturnes I" accompanies the quiet flight of consciousness into the dreamy heart of night. 

 

 

 REVIEWS

 

 •• "One of the standout tracks from this captivating release is the mesmerizing “Evanescent Shades,” an ambient composition that delicately weaves together ethereal tones and atmospheric textures." electronica.org.uk/blog/christian-wittman-takes-us-on-a-serene-journey-with-evanescent-shades/ 

 

•• "I really love the sound design of your work. It's so alive, so organic, like I've said before I am left wondering how it's done 😊 It really is a unique atmosphere created in the hands of someone with a keen eye both of the details and the totality." (Beatradar

 

 •• "Nocturnes is listened to with eyes half-closed, letting its shifting landscapes unfold, so many subtle incidences inviting themselves surreptitiously. An unfolding of our inner films, Chritian Wittman's ambient is always sonic lacework, nothing predictable, you have to follow the path as it unfolds, and when it's over, you pick up another from his discography. I draw the parallel with possible sonic haikus. Enjoy your immersion." (Thierry Moreau)

Music and Geometry

 


In the way I create my ambient music, vision and geometry matter. I love to start with a basic track, I record with a given instrument and sound. And then, I play with this basic track, on other instruments and sounds, I cut it, I reorganise it...
My music is a result of plan and chance...
I move and reconfigure my patterns until I reach something interesting and unexpected.
Creating music is trying to blend a plan with random events.
Creating music is deciding when a random event is the right one, that is the plan.

Shadows of Fading Time (A Disco Gecko Release)

 

 

For his stunning debut release on Disco Gecko, Christian Wittman invites you on an extraordinary soundscape journey, weaving different threads of ambient and minimalist music to create  Shadows of Fading Time.

The nine compositions on the album, his 49th solo release, explore the concept of intimate chamber music, where delicate acoustic tones and electronic sound design unfold to reveal a beautiful and poetically fragile listening space, full of visions, memories and atmospheres.

A founding member of the highly influential French collective Lightwave, who have been tracing a unique, creative path in the field of electronic and ambient music since the 1980s, Christian Wittman’s work is found at the transition between ambient and space music, with a strong emphasis on sound design and textures.

"Shadows of Fading Time” creates immersive listening spaces infused with fragility, allowing the listener to freely project his inner films on a screen of sighs, melodic sketches and harmonic mirrors.


REVIEWS


—   "I listened to your new album and think it’s a fine and serious artistic contribution to the genre. I look forward to including it in our fall/winter programming. " (Stephen Hill, Hearts of Space Radio Program)

—  "Christian Wittman – Shadows Of Fading Time
The sort of electronic music album that's perfect to head off into the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night, and, under cloudless skies, play this while you look up at the stars and ponder the nature of the universe.

I could actually leave it there, but for those with a marked mack of imagination, I can tell you that this is a synthesizer music album, where 9 tracks of rhythm-free, electronic, multi-textured, layered musical soundscapes, drift, drone and float, over, under, sideways and down, across each other and in various degrees of pitch and harmony.

A track such as “The Invisible Ones” tends to travel through a more bass-y sounding sea of synths, deeply resonant but will with a more cosmic upper end, floating about on top, while “Blurred Vision” is just that, as it throbs and shimmers and is much more full-sounding, while at the same time, still transports you to the farthest reaches of inner and outer space. “Haunted Nights”, as the title suggests, is altogether more eerie, with a sharper kind of soundscape, that's as bleak as it is black,while the longest track on the album, the 9 and a half minute “A Shadow Is Passing By” is, arguably, the perfect summation of the album as a whole, ending on waves and layers of slowly unfolding cosmic bliss.

Overall, it's a faultless slice of space synth music soundscaping, and manages to lose you into its evolving charms, with certainty, every time you play it."
(Andy Garibaldi, INKEYS


— About "Rustling Souls": "It's another interesting release from you. Overall I like the unique texture on it, kind of rustic, great details going on in the background. Field recordings, I presume?" (Beatradar, curator of "Ambient Universe - Drone Explorations into the Unknown")
 

Fragile


 


Several listeners and reviewers have written that there is something "fragile" about my music.

I think their comment is right.

There is something "fragile" in my music, which is about breathing, sighing, silence, hesitation.

This "fragile" side is also due to the fact that I try to reach a purified sound, minimal at times, both essential and necessary, following the inner vibrations of my sensitivity and my inspiration, even of my breathing...

I do not seek, I do not seek any more a massive sound, a "big electronic sound". I don't want to impress... I want to touch the listener...

I look for the purity, the breath, the sigh, the resonances which linger, the traces of the music when it is on the threshold of silence.

"Fragile", no doubt also, because my music reflects states of mind, moments of doubt, sadness, questioning, despair sometimes, but also, as Homer said, moments of smile mixed with tears, where the hope of a new day comes to dissipate the anguish of the deep night.

No serious or profound music, felt and thought from the depths of a soul, remains on the surface of things.

It is both questions and answers. Doubts and certainties. Sorrows and hopes.

Music is not about technique.

It has to do with the exploration and the sharing of the depths.

Its formal and existential fragility are the source of its power.
 

Windy Lands

 


Windy Lands is the third opus of a climatic and ambient series started with the albums Misty Lands and Frozen Lands.

This musical trilogy explores new aesthetic and sonic directions, inspired by the minimalist and neoclassical current represented by composers such as Ólafur Arnalds or Nils Frahm, but also by certain atmospheres of the ECM label.

With the contribution of string instruments and, on two tracks, of an electric guitar,  Windy Lands would like to approach the expressivity of a small hybrid or mixed chamber music ensemble, between electronic soundscapes and acoustic sounds, thus reviving the experiments that we carried out in Lightwave, notably with the album Bleue comme une orange.



REVIEWS

— "Really peaceful and relaxing wave track !" (about Stormy Sky). Here (Spotify playlister).

—  Music For Art Gallery and Windy Lands
Two new albums of cosmic synth music, from the increasingly prolific French synthesist, and here you do indeed get two albums of original music without a rhythm in sight.

Of the two,  Art Gallery is what you'd call the “busiest” as it features more of the piano/electric piano (I can never tell!!) with compositions ranging from just under 4, to over 7 minutes, and the depth of sound is fairly vast, for such a spacey album, so that, while there aren't huge arsenals of electronics, the textural qualities of the compositions, comes into play, so that it's got several layers on which to focus at any one time, layers that are constantly on the move, albeit slowly, and all the while, managing to retain every bit of emotion that you could wring out of such ethereal yet gorgeously compelling, spacetronic music.

Windy Lands
, however, is an album that builds. Again, all cosmic, and this time more predominantly electronic, it starts very minimally, then, as the tracks progress, so the sonic canvas spreads out and stretches across the horizons, to reveal new textures, new layers and give the music more strength and depth, as it progresses, almost “orchestral”, in a minimal sense, on the final couple of tracks, and, overall, a worthy addition to the “Art” album, in that they come from the same beating heart, but travel in different directions."
Andy Garibaldi, Inkeys (UK)
 

Music for Art Gallery I

 


My new album, "Music for Art Gallery I", is inspired by the world of contemporary art - sculptures, video installations, performances, painting - and invites you to a journey through some of the great art capitals of today, from New York to Amsterdam, from Berlin to Athens, from Rome to Los Angeles.

These eight compositions are both ambient and experimental, they are at the crossroads of minimalism, a certain acousmatic abstraction and sound design...

I tried to suggest through sound design the sensory, visual, tactile, spatial universe of contemporary art, with its surfaces, its materiality, its geometry, its perspective games, its architectures of lines and shapes.

"Music for Art Gallery I" is, in a way, a continuation of my album series "Ambient Mapping", "Sound Painting" and "Music for Installations".

It is an ambient music that unfolds contemplative atmospheres in a slow travelling of the gaze and the mind on virtual works, that the listener is invited to imagine....

I hope to initiate a collaboration with art galleries and contemporary artists to inscribe my sound research in real places

 


 

REVIEWS

— "Conceived as a multi-sensory experiential piece best suited for visual accompaniment of a gallery, the French artist Christian Wittman’s “Manhattan” is a lovely slice of experimental ambient work that finds its home in various nexuses of a venn diagram of several musical schools of thought. Of the piece, Wittman states, “I tried to suggest through sound design the sensory, visual, tactile, spatial universe of contemporary art, with its surfaces, its materiality, its geometry, its perspective games, its architectures of lines and shapes.” The resulting composition is one that is easy to get lost in - all the better to take while you stroll the MOMA or Whitney in Manhattan. "
Ryan Hall, Tome of the Weather Machine (tometotheweathermachine.com)

— "Great sounds and cool production. Beautiful arrangements.
I really enjoyed the ethereal and mysterious mood!" (Listnerd, about "Manhattan")

— "Captivating soundscapes and floating atmosphere.."  Music for Home


Music For Art Gallery and Windy Lands
Two new albums of cosmic synth music, from the increasingly prolific French synthesist, and here you do indeed get two albums of original music without a rhythm in sight.

Of the two, “Art Gallery” is what you'd call the “busiest” as it features more of the piano/electric piano (I can never tell!!) with compositions ranging from just under 4, to over 7 minutes, and the depth of sound is fairly vast, for such a spacey album, so that, while there aren't huge arsenals of electronics, the textural qualities of the compositions, comes into play, so that it's got several layers on which to focus at any one time, layers that are constantly on the move, albeit slowly, and all the while, managing to retain every bit of emotion that you could wring out of such ethereal yet gorgeously compelling, spacetronic music.

“Windy Lands”, however, is an album that builds. Again, all cosmic, and this time more predominantly electronic, it starts very minimally, then, as the tracks progress, so the sonic canvas spreads out and stretches across the horizons, to reveal new textures, new layers and give the music more strength and depth, as it progresses, almost “orchestral”, in a minimal sense, on the final couple of tracks, and, overall, a worthy addition to the “Art” album, in that they come from the same beating heart, but travel in different directions."
Andy Garibaldi, Inkeys (UK)