Frozen moment. JACQUES SODDELL
(Kaon 2011)
‘Frozen moment’ is another release where an artist is commissioned to use the recordings that Kaon’s manager Cedric Peyronnet captured on the Taupin river, to make a composition with them; in this case the artist is Jacques Soddell from Australia who found on Andrei Tarkowski movie ‘Solyaris’-in particular in a fragment towards the end that takes place in a frozen pond- some deal of inspiration.
[still from the fragment of Solyaris that Soddell found inspiring for this release]
The work of Jacques Soddell is new to me although his curatorial and publishing project Cajid media has been running since 2004; an interesting fact about Jacques Soddell is that he was originally a microbiologist before started to work on visual and sonic art.
‘Frozen moment’ is a result of the interest that Soddell found on the recordings that Cedric Peyronnet did from icy waters in Pont du Dagnon.
It’s hard to determine how much processing of the sounds were done here since every sound seems quite three-dimensional, espacial and tactile. Anyway I would guess that Soddell’s approach rather than merely documental was more musical, environmental, emotional and mostly material: the artist found on icy sound of Taupin the matter to manipulate and give form to a compelling sound universe of unique temporalities and spatialities.
On ‘Frozen moment’ time and space seem to be problems of simultaneity and scale; the micro and macro are formally adressed trough the emphasis of layers and depth: Jacques Soddell manages to build an impressive mass of sound that mutates into different forms occurring in different spaces but that is always perceived as a unit. A remarkable aspect to ‘Frozen moment’ is how every sound seems to occur in a complete different space: every layer of sound is isolated from the next one creating an impressive sense of ‘parallel simultaneity’ on every given moment.
‘Frozen moment’ is a compelling release that shows that musique concrete is as valid, pertinent and unexplored as any other line of work, where new and pre-existent formal approaches and reflections alike can be strongly rewarding for both the artist and the listener.
-John McEnroe
