RVNG Intl. to collect Ariel Kalma’s previously unreleased early works in an archival anthology

RVNG Intl. to collect Ariel Kalma's previously unreleased early works in an archival anthology

The beloved electro-auteur label RVNG Intl. has announced a new addition to their already impressive (Craig Leon, K. Leimer, Sensations’ Fix, etc.) archival collection: An Evolutionary Music (Original Recordings: 1972 - 1979), an anthology of visionary ethno-cosmic electronic composer Ariel Kalma’s early works. As indicated by the album’s title, it focuses on Kalma’s early years, sourcing from previously unissued music out of his private tapes, as well as self-released pieces from the same period. The French artist’s music has evolved through different stages along his four-decade career, but keeps a defining feature in its desire of mixing Western electronic experimentation with Eastern spiritual expressions — a tradition going back to, arguably, Schopenhauer.

Ariel Kalma was originally a horn player, and as a young man he studied sacramental music in India, a dual training which came to fruition when Kalma started mixing sustained aerophone notes with tape loops and synthesized drones. At the time the pieces comprising this anthology were composed, Kalma was just back from India, working as an assistant at Pierre Henry’s GRM lab. Again, the two influences are evident in the confluence of analogue delay units and ethno-musicological excursions heard on Kalma’s music through the early 70s. These compositions are clearly rawer than what one can find in Kalma’s later works, with the seams interlacing both musical strands still visible. To an extent, this compilation reveals Kalma’s aesthetic as a work in progress, leading to the superb modal marriage of electro jazz fusion and Indian sounds of Le Temps des Moissons (1975) and Osmose (1978), where Kalma processes nature sounds and integrates them into his modular synth tapestries.

Kalma’s music has famously defied categorization. It is not quite Ambient, it predates the rise of New Age and World Music as genres, the synth work is more meditative than Terry Riley’s (whom Kalma is sometimes compared with), with an overall mood more introspective than Klaus Schulze’s but less synth-bound than the Berlin composer, seldom falling in the unlikely intersection of Keith Jarrett and Don Cherry… one’s tempted to borrow the title from one of this album’s songs (“Ecstasy Musical Mind Yoga”) and slap it as an umbrella tag; but that would hardly describe a third of a collection that includes primitive drum machine workouts (“Chase Me Now”), a trancey tape prank (“Enuej Elleiv”) and even spoken word tracks (“Les mots de tous les jours”).

An Evolutionary Music (Original Recordings: 1972 - 1979) is out on November 11 as a double LP, double CD, and digital release. The album includes liner notes by Jesse Jarnow.

An Evolutionary Music (Original Recordings: 1972 - 1979) tracklisting:

01. Almora Sunrise
02. Ecstasy Musical Mind Yoga
03. Echorgan
04. Sunset Inside
05. Chase Me Now
06. Enuej Elleiv
07. Sister Echo
08. Les Mots de Tous Les Jours (Rêves Etranges)
09. Rainy Day
10. What Would You Say
11. Les Etoiles Sont Allumées
12. Voltage Controlled Wave
13. Montparnasse Morocco
14. Head Noises
15. Asalam Yamarek
16. Love and Dream
17. Yogini Breath

• Ariel Kalma: http://www.ariel-kalma.com
• RVNG Intl.: http://igetrvng.com

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