In my “real life”, I'm a classicist working on Greco-Roman antiquity. I've always been fascinated by this form of transmission of knowledge and wisdom, which didn't involve writing, but was transmitted orally, by word of mouth, from master to disciple. It was esoteric knowledge, reserved for the initiated, and accessed after various initiation rituals. The Pythagoreans, the Orphics, but also the philosophical schools of Plato and Aristotle, and later the Neoplatonists, were all familiar with this mode of transmission... But the same initiation practices can be found in Tibetan Buddhism, in the yogi traditions of the Himalayas, and in Taoism too.
I wanted to set this sacred, ritualized universe to music, oscillating between the words of the spiritual masters and the silence of the disciples, creating a harmony that goes beyond language.
French ambient and electronic music from the 1970s to now
The
story of French electronic music over the last hundred years is one of
artistic and technical innovations that changed the course of
contemporary music.
The late 19th century stylistic
inventions of GABRIEL FAURÉ, MAURICE RAVEL, and CLAUDE DEBUSSY led to
the emergence of Impressionism and Minimalism in the 20th century—while
the revolutionary innovations of ERIK SATIE laid the foundation for
ambient background music and personal music for solo piano.
At the same time, the invention of playable French electronic
instruments like the "Ondes Martenot" in 1928, accelerated the arrival
of live electronic performance, and the French brilliance in style and
design produced exceptionally refined sonic and textural quality in
recordings after mid-century.
On this transmission of
Hearts of Space, a look at French ambient and electronic music from the
1970s to now, on a program called "AMBIANCE FRANÇAIS."
Driftworks next release is a more experimental album that explores the art of 'exciting' acoustic spaces with the sounds of prepared piano, electronics and voices.Akousmataby Christian Wittman, invites listeners to lose themselves in architectures and dimensions where voices and harmonies, ritual bells and gongs slowly fade into silence.
The French duo Lightwave, composed of Christoph Harbonnier and
Christian Wittman, has left an indelible mark on electronic and ambient
music since its formation in 1984. Their album Cités Analogues,
originally released in 1988, has been reissued on January 10, 2025 by
Bureau B. This album is a masterpiece of kosmische and concrète,
combining elements of analog synthesizers and location recordings to
create expansive, dreamlike soundscapes.
Lightwave has explored diverse musical styles throughout his career,
from his early experiments in Modular Experiments (1987) to
collaborations with artists such as Hector Zazou, Michel Redolfi, and
Paul Haslinger. Their focus on concrete and ambient music has led them
to create works that evoke poetic and sensual worlds. The album Cités
Analogues is a sonic journey that invites listeners to immerse
themselves in their complex and beautiful compositions.
Cités Analogues, however, was one of Lightwave's
early cassette releases, recorded soon after their core lineup of Christoph Harbonnier and Christian Wittman
was established. Recorded and mixed live in the studio, then produced
and edited soon afterward, the effort was made using modular
synthesizers, Roland sequencers, and digital effects.
Subsequent
Lightwave efforts ventured into neo-classical territory, and with some
of them appearing on Hearts of Space sublabel Fathom, they might've been
found in the new age section at record stores.
This recording is a bit
too dark, cold, and collage-like to fit in such a category. The bustling
sounds of a crowded airport are heard near the beginning of the album,
segueing into radio airwave noises and trickling analog synths. "Le
Parvis" establishes a sinister groove, with sneaking electronic drums
and synth playing approximating wild flute trills. Another passage of
sampled crowd noise segues into "Agora," an extended, ambient reflection
that feels like an escape from society in order to seek a tranquil,
meditative space. Following a few brief pieces consisting of uneasy,
haunted textures and more found sounds, "Cités Analogues" makes greater
use of the duo's sequencers and drum machines, recalling Tangerine Dream's
rhythmic side while foreshadowing the type of cerebral ambient techno
that would be much more common five years later, and adding a bit of
analog crunch.
Lightwave would go on to do bigger, more ambitious, and
more accomplished things, but Cités Analogues is a set of promising
early steps containing some innovative moments which sound slightly
ahead of their time.
Like many musicians of my generation, I experienced recording on analog tape, then on digital media, in stereo or multitrack. For the solo musician or band recording live, this meant a particular involvement in the session, and often the need to redo a track or the whole recording in the event of error or dissatisfaction.
Perhaps there was a sense of urgency among us, a desire to give our best and to surpass ourselves, in the very moment of recording and playing the instrument, individually or collectively.
Recording direct to disk, on a computer, with a multi-track DAW, has profoundly altered the process... Cubase, Logic Audio, Live and others have made it possible, especially for purely electronic music, to work in the home studio. The correction and editing of a recorded track, note by note, copy/paste operations, even remixes and metamorphoses of a track, from one project to another, have profoundly reconfigured the work of musical composition and its temporality.
The gains are obvious. But perhaps we've also lost the magic of a certain spontaneity and those “moments of grace” that every musician has experienced, whether solo or in a group, when something inexplicable happens and the first take is the right one. That's what makes the magic of live performance, whether it's a concert or a studio session.
In my experience with Lightwave, and my accomplices Christoph Harbonnier, Jacques Derégnaucourt, Renaud Pion and Paul Haslinger, we've known those magical moments, recorded on Revox tape or DAT cassette, where collective improvisation was accompanied by a live mix, where everyone controlled their levels and playing to better blend into the common sound flow.
Today, working with the infinite possibilities of computers and direct-to-disk recording, I feel like an assembler, retouching and adding one thing after another to arrive at a composition built step by step.
I see a parallel with the evolution of writing instruments. For a long time, I used a typewriter, first mechanical, then electric. You had to write a draft, sometimes several drafts, before typing the text. Corrections were complicated, requiring cut-outs, collages and ribbons of “tipex corrector”. The only way to type was to have a very precise idea of what you wanted to write, and usually a draft to reproduce, with changes in the margins.
Word processing on the computer has changed all that. Immediate correction and editing capabilities have made drafts obsolete. The computer has made the writing process more fluid and instinctive, perhaps at the cost of a step backwards in the process of thinking about and fine-tuning texts.
I have two albums scheduled for release between the beginning of April and the beginning of May.
The first, "Akousmata", will be released on Driftworks, the web label created by my friend Andrew Heath, as a CD in two limited editions, and as a digital download.
The second, "Views of Mind", has been accepted by Paul at Shimmering Moods Records, again with a limited-edition CD release.
A third album project, "The Northwest Passage", is nearing completion and has been accepted by a no less prestigious label for release in late 2025 or early 2026.
Entrusting my music to specialized labels, driven by a true artistic vision, with their network of contacts and fans, is a way for an independent musician like me to widen the circulation of my music, to make it live and breathe, to make it resonate with that of the artists featured on these labels: whoever is alike comes together, in the plural of sensibilities and inspirations, musical skills and personal histories...
I am infinitely grateful to these courageous label managers, guided by their love of music and their artistic vision, against all odds.
At the same time, I'll be continuing to add new musical projects to my Bandcamp page.
I've got several on the go.
I'm determined to pursue my path, my vision and the logic of my creative journey.
I will not bend to the injunctions of the guardians of the temple of well-tempered ambient who dismiss my music from playlists because it's too much of this, and not enough of that.
I'm trying, at my modest level, to chart a course for a musician of integrity and without compromise.
The recognition of a small circle of connoisseurs is more important to me than the statistics of Spotify's algorithmic circus, where my tracks are lost in the flux of fast listening...
Last but not least: deep thanks to all the podcasts and radio programmers, blogs and magazines reviewers who support my creative journey... You are so precious!
"This is one of his finest albums to date, possessing more of an exploratory nature, a cutting edge and a seriously early seventies electronic pioneering approach to the tracks, but still being cosmic electronic music of the highest order." (Andy G. / Inkeys)
As a thank you to my fans, and to allow new visitors to my blog to discover my music, I'll be offering download codes for some of my past albums from time to time.
If the first codes have already been used, don't hesitate to try the next ones!
Today, I invite you to discover Ouranopolis!
If you'd like to support me on my journey as an independent musician, I'd like to remind you that you can purchase my entire discography (67 albums) at an 80% discount, i.e. 63 € 80 (less than one euro per album!). Link: https://christianwittman.bandcamp.com
"Brand new album from the French cosmic music pioneer, this time with 11 tracks between 5 and 7 minutes long, all of which are their own unique universes of sound. It starts with “Stellar Eternity” that hearkens back to what Tangerine Dream were doing on albums such as “Zeit” and the quieter passages of “Alpha Centauri”, possessing a remarkable analogue feel and takes you right back to the early seventies German synth explorers, a superb opener that sets the mood.
“Tycho Brahe's Supernova” continues from there with a more top end brew of floating cloud music, this time less overtly “deep” at the bass end, with more of a shimmer to its higher register electronic excursions through the universe, slowly unfolding like some emerging galaxy in slow motion. “Schedar” is, if anything, slightly more minimalist, with a much more unnerving feel to its pastoral pleasures, as you stare into the blackness through slowly moving layers of synths. “Open Cluster” is initially more in your face with blasts of sound before settling back into a continuously shifting, eerie electronic realm that is now almost totally devoid of light and I wouldn't want to listen to this one in the dark.
By contrast, “Northern Sky” adds extra layers courtesy of a strange sea of piano ripples set to what sounds like piano strings being struck and the whole track is veering close to avant-classical. “Radio Source” is string-like cosmic electronic that hearkens back to the Germanic, harsh and bleak yet strangely serene and addictive, while “Cosmic Dust” goes through a variety of textures and soundpools as it travels, more vibrant now, with almost percussive bursts of background, but still the sound of the universe unfolding in all its electronic glory.
With four further excellent and similar tracks to surprise and delight, this is one of his finest to date, possessing more of an exploratory nature, a cutting edge and a seriously early seventies electronic pioneering approach to the tracks, but still being cosmic electronic music of the highest order."
Is the music I create determined by the music I like to listen to, as well as by the shape of my mind, everything I've written, thought and imagined over the course of my life?
Yes, without a doubt...
I feel drawn towards abstraction, minimalism, experimentation, and a form of free writing that could be expressed in visuals, words and sounds alike...
I try to follow threads of thought, uncontrolled, open, following the bifucations of certainty and risk-taking...
Intuition, making decisions in the moment, is what allows me to choose a path among others at the crossroads...
To create, to immerse oneself in creation, is in a way to accept losing control...
My music follows a thread that excludes multiple possibilities in order to get to the heart of an idea, a concept...
I don't like to follow the paths traced by others...
I want to draw my own roadmap, against all odds...
Cassiopeia is a celestial constellation visible from the northern
hemisphere, named after an Ethiopian queen from Greek mythology, who was
the mother of Andromeda, another neighboring constellation.
Between large stars and nebulae, supernova and Milky Way, this celestial
region inspired this new space music project, under the sign of
fluidity and expansion, meditative contemplation and cosmological
curiosity.
On this album, I use a renewed sound palette, reviving the organic
experimentation of analog and modular synthesizers, in a spirit that
would like to situate itself in the continuity of the abstract
soundscapes of early Tangerine Dream.
Andrew Heath et Christian Wittman nous plongent dans un voyage sonore immersif et organique. Paru le 25 octobre 2024, Par vents et marées célèbre l’alchimie terre mer
Andrew Heath et Christian Wittman s’inspirent d’un motif de piano, d’un chatoiement électronique ou d’un son trouvé et traité… Leur musique dérive en créant de nouvelles cartes.
Cette collaboration immersive est une exploration musicale des thèmes
des grandes marées, qui montent et descendent, et des courants d’air qui
circulent entre les terres et les mers. Paysagiste sonore et
compositeur, Andrew Heath produit une musique calme, ambiante, basée sur le piano, l’électronique et le Field Recording. Christian Wittman
est l’un des membres fondateurs du groupe français Lightwave qui,
depuis les années 80, trace un chemin créatif unique dans le domaine des
musiques électroniques, au croisement de la musique ambiante et du «
classique atmosphérique », avec un fort accent sur le design sonore et
les climats. Leur rencontre est sublimée avec cet album, découvrez Par vents et marées…
« J’aime les sons qui évoluent d’une manière que je ne peux pas
toujours contrôler, je recherche la juxtaposition aléatoire de petits
bruits et je les oppose à des notes de piano soutenues qui dérivent en
phase et en déphasage, ou à des chemins de modulation complexes qui
produisent des sauts de filtre imprévisibles. Je cherche à créer
des textures sonores et de la musique en minuscules. Un point où la
musique et le son sont en suspension dans l’air, des particules et des éléments en constante agitation autour d’un thème ou d’une pensée à demi remémorée » (Andrew Heath).
Dans Par vents et marées (Stroud – 2024), paru le 25
octobre, Andrew Heath et Christian Wittman tissent un univers sonore
unique, inspiré des mouvements naturels des marées et des courants
aériens. Ce projet explore la rencontre entre des nappes de
piano, des textures électroniques subtiles et des enregistrements de
terrain minutieusement intégrés, créant une œuvre immersive à la fois
aérienne et sous-marine. Le piano, tantôt électrique, tantôt acoustique,
se mêle aux sons imprévisibles de percussions et de bruitages
modulaires, tandis que les notes de guitare flottent au-dessus d’un
maelström sonore. Heath exprime sa recherche d’une juxtaposition de sons
aléatoires et de textures en évolution constante, pour suspendre la
musique dans l’air comme des particules en mouvement autour d’une
pensée, subtile et fugitive.
Christian Wittman DR
Cette collaboration entre les univers musicaux de Andrew Heath et de
Christian Wittman est une véritable alchimie, chacun apporte ses
sensibilités et ses textures sonores pour créer un voyage évocateur.
Leurs approches complémentaires fusionnent pour capturer l’essence des
paysages marins et aériens, offrant une expérience sonore aussi poétique
que profondément sensorielle. Tantôt léger, tantôt sombre – évoquant le
contraste entre le calme apparent de la mer, et les dynamiques et flux
qui se déploient, à la fois en profondeur et dans l’air, ces paysages sonores organiques et immersifs nous maintiennent habillement en voyage.
