Magazine Sixty Music Review with Paul Haslinger and Christian Wittman
Greg Fenton reviews Paul Haslinger and Christian Wittman – Mallarmé – noion Music
Four expansive pieces of music inspired by Mallarmé’s Un coup de dés jamais n’abolira le hasard are brought together in this artistic collaboration, which feels revelatory and invites the listener into a bold, deeply immersive musical world. The enduring power of the verse is signalled by the cover shot of Stéphane Mallarmé, whose stare, infused with purposeful meaning, dates from 1890. And while the impulse may have originated then, this album is filled with robust, modern discourse.
Apart from stating the obvious that musically the sounds used to form the compositions radiate as much contemporary energy as they gently echo the past, there is something transformative as you are transported into a whirlwind of emotions, sensory lifts and falls, amid a wild, exulted variety of imaginary memory. Given the passages are lengthy, tone and atmosphere are given free rein to expand and shift at will, which only heightens anticipation of change and its host of invigorating complexities. It is quite amazing to witness the physical shift as pieces of music move from melancholy to the more sublime, pausing at all points far and wide, very much like a deep investigation in motion, with emotionally persuasive ideas captured in the formation of sounds.
At times, the piano becomes the emotional centrepiece, almost singing; elsewhere, hot-wired electronics take over, driven by a radical interpretation of their consequences in a mixed-up world, or through evocative swells of synthesiser pads and strokes of modular sequencing. Throughout, it’s the extraordinary depth of communication—the constant interplay of light and dark—that makes this recording so compelling. Quite exceptional.
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