Atrium brings together French clarinetist-composer Julien Stella, of the duo NoSax NoClar (with reed player Bastien Weeger) and the Groove Catcher quartet (also with Weeger), with fellow French, classically-trained viola de gamba player Marie-Suzanne de Loye and cellist Lina Belaïd. This is the debut album of this chamber trio, and the first one of Stella as a bandleader. It is the second release of the newly-founded French label-recording studio Pure Capture, which aims to leave the hermetic world of studios and record in unusual places, but with no information about when and where it was recorded.
Stella composed eleven short pieces for this unique trio that take the ancient concept of the central courtyard or room of a building, open to visitors and guests and where images of ancestors were displayed. These nuanced, story-like pieces explore the corresponding, vibrant timbres of Stella’s ethereal and folky, clarinet and bass clarinet, and the woody, dark sounding string instruments of de Loye and Belaïd, and all three musicians often use their instruments to produce percussive sounds..
Stella’s Atrium offers an intimate, border and genre-dfying musical journey tinged with timeless Western and Eastern colors and images, exotic rituals and dances. One piece is dedicated to legendary Armenian duduk player-composer Djivan Gasparyan and another to the South African percussion ensemble Amampondo. A piece is titled after the biblical Mount Sinai, and all sketching the vast musical territories of this trio.
Eyal Hareuveni
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Julien Stella er en ung fransk klarinetist, som debuterer med dette som helstøbte værk, kan man vist nok kalde det. Blot akompagneret af en cello, spillet af Lina Belaïd, og et renæssance-instrument, viola da gamba, en slags forløber for celloen, spillet af Marie-Sazanne de Loye. På et enkelt nummer medvirker Elouan Le Sauze på Bretonsk bombarde, en slags obo, særligt benyttet i folkemusik. Debutanten selv spiller foruden almindelig klarinet, også basklarinet og sansula, en kalimba med skind.
Stella har en særdeles smuk tone på klarinetten hvortil kommer en imponerende teknik med circular breathing. Han er rytmisk pågående i sit spil, hvilket kompenserer for fraværet af slagtøj. Hvilket burde have været en oplagt ingrediens i denne musik som har klare mellemøstlige overtoner. Uden at tillægge ham religiøse motiver, dertil er kendskabet særdeles begrænset, så bevæger musikken sig i sufiens tegn, hvilket høres i de dansable dervish-udladninger. Imponerende debut.
Allan Sommer
Julien Stella (clarinet, bassclarinet, sansula), Marie-Suzanne de Loye (viola da gamba), Lina Bdlaïd (cello) + Elouan La Sauze (Breton bombard)
