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Cinq Chants d’Athènes

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Emmanuel Cremer

Label: Fou Records
Released: 2022
Duration: 00:39:47
Views: 100

Tracks

Ste-Croix-de-Caderle / Αθήνα / Brussels ;Mythes et Utopie; Infini sans Terre; Meli; Deep in Chimaeras’ Space

Personnel

Album Description

Album Overview

Cinq Chants d'Athènes (Five Songs of Athens) is a solo album by French cellist Emmanuel Cremer, released on August 13, 2022, by Fou Records. Recorded in March 2019 at 9 Studio in Athens, the work features five extended pieces totaling approximately 40 minutes.

Artistic Concept

The album is deeply inspired by Homer's Odyssey, with excerpts from the epic poem featured in the liner notes. Cremer creates a personal musical interpretation of the ancient myth, navigating between antiquity and modernity. The cover art, featuring ancient columns in the mist photographed by the artist himself, reinforces this connection to Greek heritage.

Musical Style

Critics describe the performance as a tour de force of exceptional expression, characterized by:

Confrontational acoustics: The bow "tears at the matter," striking and mistreating the strings to extract cries and creaks.
Textural complexity: Chaotic layering creates successive harmonic sheets that blend and rise through reverberation.
Dynamic range: The music shifts between intensely active playing, frontal attacks, and thoughtful ruminations or moments of elegance.
Technique: Cremer utilizes overdubbing to expand the sonic palette, alternating between bowing and pizzicato, and mixing low and high registers in a "free music" dynamic without concessions.

The album is regarded as Cremer's second absolute solo recording, showcasing a continuum of ideas where virtuosity serves a raw, savage expressiveness rather than mere technical display.

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