Michel Redolfi – Sonic Waters (Underwater Music · Musique Subaquatique)

Label: hat ART – 2002
Format: 2 x Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: Switzerland
Released: 1984
Genre: Electronic
Style: Experimental, Field Recording, Ambient

Mystical sub-aquatic electroacoustic composition from French underwater pioneer Michel Redolfi - Snorkles at the ready!

Surely the high-watermark in the prolific composer’s illustrious career, 1984 LP Sonic Waters on the Swiss hat ART label (ostensibly a jazz / avant-garde label) spreads deeply immersive arrangements across four discs.  Its blurs the worlds of synthetic and acoustic sound, capturing both sonic-sources within vast underwater spaces leading to unusual sonorities and an engulfing sense of wonder.  Most radically, Redolfi sought to situate the field of electronic music within a new, fresh, liberating and futuristic experience, away from the concert halls, which led him to experimenting with the Pacific Ocean for both acoustic and cultural reasons.  Aside from all the mind-boggling technical aspects of creating such works, Redolfi’s compositions stand tall as some of the most meditative and listenable works within the canon, each replete with subtly modulating sustained tones, frothy textures and sudden bursts of excitement.  But it also plays honours our general consensus agreement of the codified sounds of the deep blue, mostly established through classic film scores and to an extent library music, such as shimmering harps, searching flutes and mysterious tinkering keys, leading to the ultimate wind-screen listening experience.  A true original - with speedo sporting postcard! (NM/NM)

Tracklist
A        Music For Fresh Water I II III IV    23:55
B        Music For Salt Water I II III IV    23:40
C        Sunny Afternoon At Bird Rock Beach    23:35
D        Underwater Concerts Live Recordings    23:00