Label: Recital - Recital Ninety Seven
Format: LP
Country: US
Released: 2023
Genre: Classical
Style: Experimental, Free Improvisation, Ambient
Possibly Delphine Dora’s most complete statement yet on the cult Recital label.
Once in a while a perfect combination of artist and label comes along. A musician I love joins the roster of a label that means the world to me. Too often this will happen just after the fact, when both artist and label are declining. The snob in me shrinks from fan service. Something that seems to good to be true often is. But, not this time.
Delphine Dora has been active since 2005, operating on the fringes of European folk/improv/diy, producing a slew of releases that offer something different every time: art song, solo piano, folk techniques and deep atmospherics.
Recital, founded in 2012 in California by composer Sean McCann, feels to me like a kind of modern version of sainted US experimental label Lovely Music. There is the same air of play and the same meeting of the academic and countercultural. There’s almost too many great things on Recital to list. But, special mention to various Idea Fire Company releases and offshoots, those incredible Berkeley Gamalan things and any number of records by Sarah Davachi, Ian William Craig or Derek Baron.
Luckily for us Delphine’s record on the label is an early album of the year contender. It’s a subtle, deep and totally addictive collection of immersive pieces full of care and detail. Her piano is the central thread running through, sometimes rolling and repeating, sometimes wandering, always marking structure. Around this is a web of found sound, gentle electronics and voice both spoken and sung. The whole thing adds up to a truly beautiful and transporting listening experience that I just want to return to again and again... (mint / new)
Tracklist
Side 1
1. "Intimo Interior"
2. "Mirage Du Temps"
3. "Cantique Spirituel"
4. "L'aube Eternelle"
Side 2
1. "L'echo Des Limbes"
2. "Ou Descend Le Ciel"
3. "Eblouissement"
4. "Ellipse Du Doute"
5. "Contree Du Dedans"
