Michel Redolfi — Sonic Waters, Underwater Music 1979- 1987

Here we have a ten-track CD collecting together the water-themed/ based work of electroacoustic composer and experimental music composer Michel Redolfi, and as its title suggests the work is from between the years 1979 & 1987. Featured here is a blend of ’70s/ 80’s electronic soundscaping/ composition, ambience, and modern composition- and it’s suitable varied, both sonic and atmospheric, collection.

The release appeared on Belgian based experimental music label Sub Rosa- and is presented in a fairly colourful six-panel digipak, which features pictures of Redolfi creating his compositions both below and above water. Inside we find a stuck on eleven-page inlay booklet, this features a write-up about each of the ten tracks, as well as more great pictures of Redolfi doing, his work, both in and out of the water. So, a nicely and neatly presented CD.

Michel Redolfi (b. Dec 8, 1951) is from Marseille- and over his career has moved between American and France. And between the year 1980 and present-day has released seventeen albums- with their themes/ focus moving from water/ sea, onto the desert, the jungle, and outer of space- more specifically Mars. Though he is most known for his water-related/ themed composition.

The CD opens with "Overture"- this nearing eight-minute track is from the year 1981 and was part of a series of tracks that made up his Sonic Waters suite, which was premiered at an Olympic sized swimming pool in La Rochelle in southwestern France. The work utilizes a Synclavier synth processing flute and harp sounds, and this track moves from mixes of rushing string cascades and swoop synth tones, onto drifting blends of waving synth ambience and looping flute pluses. Track four is the just shy of four minutes of "Nocturnal"- this is once again from the Sonic Waters suite, and finds warbling water like synth tones moving alongside glowing ambient tone drifts.

By track seven we have the nine and a half minutes of “Effactions(La Nouvelle Atlantide)"- this is from the year 1987, and is meant to chart the intense bioacoustics activity of an underwater giant kelp forest. With its mixes of rushing and cascading electro tones, water rushing field, and siren waves- with the work shifts between bubbling harmonic brightness and more aquatic loneliness. The compilation is finished off by 1983’s “Sunny Afternoon At Bird Rock Beach”- this just over the twelve-minute track, and is a blend of watery bays, glowing ambient rushes, and twinkling cascades- which are created by a blend of Synclavier and (possibly) modified coastal bird recordings.

Before Sonic Waters, Underwater Music 1979- 1987 I had no idea who Redolfi was, and I must say this is a good introduction to his watery sonic world. Which has certainly made me keen to sample more of his work. If you’d like to find out more or buy this release direct head here.