Solo

Recorded live on October 3rd 2023 at the Chapelle du Grand Hospice, Bruxelles.

For this composition I was researching different ways of producing sounds on the saxophone that are right at the border between air and tone. The piece starts with waves of air sounds resonating through the instrument. The rhythm is determined by the meditative flow of my breathing. Every wave of exhalation is filtered through different fingerings and embochure, resulting in a Klangfarbenmelodie or better a Rauschfarbenmelodie. Little by little one can perceive very subtle and fragile tones shimmering through the breathing sounds, arising like a concrete contour in a foggy landscape. Bundles of soft overtones, multiphonics and clusters emerge, sometimes immobile or recurring, sometimes in movement. Then abrupltly the rhythm becomes agitated, flocks of short breathing accents chase each other and disperse, to finally culminate in dense layers of high siffling sounds. Soon they loose their intensity, leaving space to a drone like texture of granular noise that slowely fades out towards the end of the piece.