Ariel Kalma has been recording ambient music for so long that there wasn’t even a category for what he was doing when he started. While Jeremiah Chiu and Marta Sofia Honer haven’t been recording their experimental music anywhere near that long, they managed to catch the ear of Kalma. What began as a set of 20 minutes of music (four pieces) for BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction program led to The Closest Thing to Silence. Having never met, they began the process of exchanging tracks that would eventually lead to the radio set. Yet there was a nagging feeling that more could be done. Some tracks weren’t quite finished, while others came about quite differently.
Certain tracks feature recordings of Kalma that are decades old, while others sprang forth from improvisation and collage-based editing. What emerged is a mix of new age jazz filtered through electronic ambience. While all three play synths, Kalma is primarily responsible for woodwinds, Honer focuses on strings, and Chiu on the drum machine. There are also recordings that Kalma made in the 70s at GRM, as well as audio note recordings.
The initial burst of saxophone on “10 Hour Wave” takes on a Middle Eastern tone before heading into improvisational territory. As layers of keyboards enter, trying to fix the tones to a particular locale of influence becomes pointless. These tones come from spheres very different from any spot on the map.
“Breathing in Three Orbits” clearly suggests that for these musicians, what they do on their particular instruments is closely related to who they are, with their “orbits” intersecting. It’s fascinating to see how woodwind and synthesizers eventually give way to a more percussive segment of the piece. Out of nowhere, tuned percussion emerges, followed by an array of other, more straightforwardly percussive instruments.
Getting attuned to these pieces, one begins to hear nuances that weren’t immediately obvious. Richly invigorating, each piece seems to unfold differently. “The Closest Thing to Silence” in some ways feels like a piece formed from the plant and animal life on the ocean floor before ending in a land that is galaxies away, while “Dizzy Ditty” sports a child-like quality suggesting these three musicians are more than willing to follow a wide variety of different muses.
Rather than being some staid work of artists of different generations, Ariel Kalma, Jeremiah Chiu and Marta Sofia Honer fearlessly connect and collaborate; The Closest Thing to Silence is a remarkably coherent album that offers exciting new narratives.
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