The Cry is a new French free-improvising trio comprised of the classically-trained Christine Ott, one of the world’s leading exponents of the Ondes Martenot who also plays other analog, vintage synth and piano, sound artist Mathieu Gabry who plays other kinds of vintage and new synths (and collaborated before with Ott in the duo Snowdrops) and jazz drummer-percussionist Pierre-Loïc Le Bliguet. This self-titled debut album of this trio encompasses sonic elements from experimental contemporary music, free jazz, krautrock and prog-rock, born and sculpted at the moment and immersed in an electro-acoustic magma. The album was recorded live in one day at Downtown Studios in Strasbourg in November 2022.
The opening piece, the epic 21-minute «Fire of Love» captures best the cinematic atmosphere of the instant soundscapes of The Cry. This piece was inspired and is a tribute to the lives of the French volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft, who traveled the planet, guided by their passion for volcanoes and died in a pyroclastic flow on Mount Unzen in Japan in 1991. Ott describes this piece as a «warning cry that seems to come from the bowels of the earth, or from our bodies». This suggestive, lyrical piece invites the listener to dive into its organic magma of earthly and otherworldly timbres and untimely electric and acoustic sounds.
The following six pieces are shorter but suggest similar kinds of elastic and morphing architectures but visit totally different emotional territories, still, stressing a singular aesthetics. The short ballad «In My Mind» is touching and moving but the following «Chorus Alpha» sails into deep, dark and cold space. Later, «Mindset» flirts with a mysterious hypnotic ritual and «Evergreen» offers another cinematic, sci-fi soundtrack. «Seven Days» matches the otherworldly sounds of the vintage synths with a piano ballad and the last piece «Overture Coda» transmits a peaceful message from planet Earth about the creativity and passion of its inhabitants and ties this delicate coda with The Cry’s epic opening piece.
Eyal Hareuveni
Christine Ott (Korg MS20, Ondes Martenot, effects, piano), Mathieu Gabry (Roland Juno-6, effects, Clavia Nord Stage, piano), Pierre-Loïc Le Bliguet (drums, percussion)
