ARIEL KALMA - Osmose

Before filing away an exceptionally prosperous 2006 in terms of reissue treasures, we can't help but point out this “Osmose”, by saxophonist Ariel Kalma, originally released in 1978, which would be a shame to see lost amid the indiscriminate flood of reissues that have poured onto the market again this year. Born and raised in Paris, Kalma began playing saxophone at the age of 15, before going on to deepen his studies in art and music as well as computer science. He soon embarked on a cultural/spiritual pilgrimage across India, Japan, Canada and the United States, which allowed him to broaden his horizons and acquire skills in different musical languages and compositional techniques. Back in France in 1976, Kalma put what he had learned into practice, unleashing his creativity in a style whose dominant trait was transglobalism.

But what is this record, exactly? New age, you might think? Well, not quite, even though the sound might suggest as much on first listen. In reality, Kalma made use of field recordings captured in the forest, as a palette onto which to graft a whole series of digressions drawing on minimalism, certain strands of academic electronics, and the most ecstatic kraut sound, that of Popol Vuh, Cluster, Guru Guru and Tangerine Dream, to give you an idea.

An ambient music, naturalistic, immensely powerful and evocative, as the splendid "Manege" demonstrates, building in intensity step by step, with a variety of sonic signs that envelop, astonish, and terrify, until you feel defenseless before the transience of things. The sensation is even more intense on the unsettling "Saxo Planetariel", where Kalma employs the technique of circular breathing to draw from the instrument a sound that is at once dense and organic.

To paraphrase a review stumbled upon in the depths of the web, “Osmose” reminds us that the forest is not merely a place of peace and untouched beauty, but conceals within it something mysterious, alien, something our senses struggle to decode. And it is precisely with this ascetic, dark mood that these compositions are steeped.

Who might like it? Well, everyone (I hope), because this is a record of absolute quality, but we're especially keen to recommend it to fans of the Foxglove/Digitalis sound, and who knows, maybe the Rameses III of the situation is already right here.

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14/12/2006