See Blue Audio: ambient / electronic / beatless / cinematic / downtempo / eclectic / introspective… Shade rather than light...

'La Mer' – Tanti Aglaia (SBA #034)

*** The full quality AIFF version of 'La Mer' will be sent to purchasers on request. ***

If the twisted beats, breaks and basslines of the recent ‘Superlunar Lounge’ album by Night Sky Pulse (John Sellekaers) represented a leftfield turn in musical direction following the otherworldly ambience of the second See Blue Audio compilation, ‘Shade Rather Than Light: Anthology | Two’, then its successor is arguably an even more radical shift. ‘La Mer’ by Tanti Aglaia is a standalone longform track that defies genre constraint and draws loose inspiration from the eponymous orchestral work of influential French composer Claude Debussy. As the thirty-fourth release on See Blue Audio, it also portrays the more experimental side of the label, which is a fundamental component in its ethos of ‘shade rather than light’.

‘La Mer’ is significant in another way as it represents a return to the electronic music scene in Romania for See Blue Audio; the first release on the label came from Gabriel Slick based in Iași. Born in the historic city of Constanța beside the Black Sea, Gili Mocanu is widely known as an accomplished and unique Romanian painter whose work has been shown in numerous major galleries and museums across the world. Inspired by a generation of avant-garde Romanian composers like Iancu Dumitrescu, Octavian Nemescu and Ștefan Niculescu, Gili has also been consistently involved in sound recording since the early ‘90s, and under his long-running Somnoroase Păsărele and Centrul Isteric guises, sometimes in collaboration with others, his music has evolved its own distinctive character. Employing atypical synth sounds, spectralist techniques, and asymmetrical or non-rhythmic elements, the results have included several longform excursions into minimalist, ambient and drone territory.

Tanti Aglaia, meanwhile, is Gili Mocanu’s most recent musical alias and references a female character of the same name in a humourous sketch from Romanian television in the early ‘80s, which is available on YouTube at youtu.be/CB6vC8y9mCo

The original Tanti Aglaia, an elderly woman, is repeatedly summoned using different voice tonalities performed by renowned Romanian actress Stela Popescu. In this way, Tanti Aglaia is more an exploration of tonality focusing on variations of expression within a minimalist but repetitive context rather than about the character herself.

Returning to the influence of Claude Debussy, ‘La Mer’ utilises midi parts from the innovative composer, but it's less of a tribute than an investigation into Gili’s intimate relationship with the sea – specifically the Black Sea – and the particular state that is characteristic of a minimalist but ever-changing landscape as expressed in terms of tone and nuance.

Over 37 minutes in length, ‘La Mer’ is a mesmerising sonic passage through time and tempo; strangely soothing, occasionally jarring, and abstract while still retaining a strong sense of form and pattern. Beats function differently here than is typical in electronic music, and Gili’s productions have been described as electronic poetry. Painterly may also apply to the musical strokes and textures of ‘La Mer’.

See Blue Audio is honoured to be able to present ‘La Mer’ as part of its catalogue, and the symbiosis extends to more than an enchantment with the mysterious powers of the sea.

Project management by MMercury.

Photography: Ionuț Cornuș.