Composer: David Chaillou
Performer: Laura Mikkola
Audio CD
Number of Discs: 1
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Fuga Libera
Release: 2020
Size: 755 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
01. Les mains nues
02. Blocs
03. Empreintes
04. Mirages
05. Pluie blanche
06. Temps inverses
07. Voix parallèles
08. Légende
09. Diableries
10. Plein air
11. Final
When I composed Légendes, I sought to discover these same ideas of a blurring of past and present and of a freedom of imagination. The eleven pieces on this recording give the impression of an inner voyage, a journey of listening that forms a type of wordless narrative thread. Their titles are starting points from which doors open and suggest an itinerary. The element that sets everything in motion can be a landscape, a sound, a feeling, a state of mind. The pieces enter into dialogue at times, whilst at others they are in opposition or simply continue. Whether joyful or thoughtful, rhythmically lively or slow, their goal is to have the listener enter a keenly sensitive space in which he can set out his own story. All of the effects that Légendes employs — illusions, mirages, deformations, echoes — have been realised thanks to a type of intimacy with the piano, an instrument that is ageless and yet belongs to every age. I have attempted to convey the idea of suspended time by making use of the piano’s middle pedal. The interplay of contrasts such as distance and proximity, empty and full, associated to an exploration of harmonic texture, endeavour to create a halo of sound that could be described as spectra-tonal. Laura Mikkola, the Finnish pianist who has recorded these works, has masterfully realised all of their resonances.