Weather outside, aural weather translated into sound waves, even weather from the depths of the human soul, Carol Robinson's Weather Pieces are a voyage of initiation. These three pieces explore our sensations, questioning the vital force of the world as well as its inherent danger and death. They take the listener from the world of contemplation, almost meditative, to the heart of chaos.

This disc presents three parts of the cycle The Weather Piecescycle, in which the composer explores the musical translation of her perception of meteorological phenomena. These works feature three soloists: Carol Robinson herself on basset-horn in Les si doux redoux, double bassist Charlotte Testu in Black on Green , and guitarist Serge Teyssot-Gay in Nacarat. Live, they each play with a simple electroacoustic device, different for each piece: three to four loudspeakers arranged spatially behind or around them, which the record cannot reproduce. The sounds generated by a Max/MSP patch merge with their own instrumental sounds, in a sustained perceptual confusion. Carol Robinson introduces the musicians' voices, which emerge as "inner thoughts", as well as an element of randomness that forces a new interpretation each time the work is repeated.

The French expression "le redoux" inspired the composer to write the first piece, which is all restraint and subtlety, variations, half-tones, melting climates and interweaving. The gentle warmth is evoked by the passage from high-pitched, delicate but icy tones to lower, warmer textures. The transition is slow and seamless. This music may evoke the Far East, reminding us of works by Japan's Tōru Takemitsu (1930-1997), such as In an Automn Garden for gagaku orchestra (1973), which also offers a loving contemplation of nature, without emphasis or clash. The fine embroidery between basset-horn and electronic sounds is not far removed from the effects of the shō mouth organ. The voice, which murmurs at times, is barely perceptible. Extreme concentration transcends the listening experience.

The same energy is found in the introduction to Black and Green, but Charlotte Testu 's playing intensifies and is enriched by a myriad of techniques and sonorities, far removed from the smooth textures cultivated in the previous piece. The piece quickly reveals itself to be organic, exploiting in a great crescendo the double bass's raspy, guttural sonorities, as well as its harmonic feuds. Carol Robinson evokes a memory from her childhood in South Dakota, when the sky turned green and the fast-moving black clouds heralded the coming of tornadoes and danger. The muffled rumble of the evolving electronic framework represents this imminent threat. The whispered French text describes this precise moment of disquieting in-between, which could just as easily be likened to a psychological state.

The noisy textures that end Black and Green also open Nacarat, this time with the fury of a saturated guitar. And with good reason: this piece proposes the crossing of a cyclone! An arched structure, beginning in violence, evolves to the "absolute calm of the eye of the cyclone", then returns to the initial agitation, pushed to extremes. Serge Teyssot-Gay 's mastery of timbres works wonders in this great half-hour voyage, traversed by many colors, themselves enumerated in the text clamored by turns with agitation, disquiet and fascination: "...zinzolin, parma, bright red, turquoise, wheat, plum, wormwood, sapphire, turquoise, yellow, mauve...", not forgetting "nacarat", "a shade of both pink and orange, iridescent, not really fixed", as Carol Robinson describes it in the booklet.

Solidly constructed, the narrative of this album is perfectly conducted by three virtuoso performers of great precision. Having recently had the opportunity to see two of these works performed on stage at the Musique action festival by other performers, double bassist Louis-Michel-Marion and guitarist Christelle Séry (there was also Le fond de l'air II for soprano saxophone, with Violaine Gestalder, and Blanc de neige for trio), I can see that the richness of these scores allows for renewed versions with each performance, and that the disc offers the possibility of highly interesting analytical listening: not always obvious. This focus on meteorological phenomena can only resonate with the emergence of the Anthropocene concept and the growing awareness of the ecological catastrophe generated and maintained by mankind. In this way, Carol Robinson's album is as much an invitation to contemplate the world's fascinating and terrible beauties as it is to question their evolution, and perhaps even to imagine the continuity of a world without us.

Guillaume Kosmicki

The Weather Pieces, Mode records, July 2023

Photo © Sabine Mirlesse
Photo @ Sebastiano d'Ayala Valva