French composer and musical auteur
Hector Zazou passed away shortly after completing
In the House of Mirrors, his final album for the venerable Crammed label in Belgium.
Zazou made a name for himself with European audiences back in the 1980s by virtue of
Noir et Blanc his brilliant collaboration with Congolese vocalist
Bony Bikaye. He finally scored in the United States with
Sahara Blue, which featured his musical collaborations with a number of artists ranging from
John Cale and actor Gerard Depardieu to
Dead Can Dance,
Bill Laswell, and
David Sylvian, to name a few. His subsequent efforts were greeted with everything from lukewarm attention in the cultural Philistine wasteland of the United States to rapt celebration in Europe, Africa, and the Far East. That said,
Zazou may've indeed saved the very best for last. This set was recorded in Mumbai with a quartet of musicians called Swara who hail from India and Uzbekistan-Toir Kuziyev (tambur and oud), Milind Raykar (violin),
Ronu Majumdar (flute), and Manish Pingle (Indian slide guitar). They work as a unit and with sonic assistance from trumpeter
Nils Petter Molvaer, percussionist
Bill Rieflin (formerly of
Swans, currently of
R.E.M.), pianist
Diego Amador, and violinist
Zoltán Lantos. These musicians present a fresh take on classical Indian and Middle Eastern-Asian classical music, enabled by the most subtle repossessing of the sonic environment without any additional electronic elements layered in or added in any way. In other words, the music is mirrored to these performers only as itself, sonically reflected back, one note to the next, without enveloping, or recontextualizing the original sounds in any way. Think of
Robert Fripp's Frippertronics process without tape recorders, and with less actual repetition and more musical reportage and you get an idea. The actual soundwaves are reflected back as a way of deepening the original sound made on an instrument, pushing it back into itself, to emerge as something fuller, richer, deeper, and more a matter of sound itself than the particular placement of notes and harmonics. These ten pieces, which are poetic, spare, and expertly performed, create a seamless work, one that reflects simultaneously the deserts of Northern Africa, the mountainous loneliness of the Indian plain, and the history of the folk and classical music that comes from the region without a hint of nostalgia or artifice. This is deeply spiritual ambient music that has as its source of inspiration not only the land, but the human heart and its multiple secretive chambers.
Zazou and his collaborators have given us a record to ponder slowly, deliberately, and purposefully, yet reward us with real fulfillment in the listening experience.