A Closer Listen
A fine year of collaboration continues for Anders Lauge Meldgaard, who this spring released a set with Halvcirkel, last week appeared on an LP with Valby Vokalgruppe and now shares billing on the new release from Copenhagen Clarinet Choir.
The name of the set may also sound familiar, as it is shared with piano works by Franz Liszt and Maurice Ravel, all inspired by the fountains of Tivoli’s Villa dEste. The latest J’eux deu is an ebullient meditation on water, reflected in its flowing surfaces, sparkling like the sundrops of the fountain. Replicating the freedom of Valby Vokalgruppe’s Solids for Voices, the compositions are not staid; the performers were invited to improvise and to contribute their own colors and hues. The four-nation clarinet sextet is enhanced by Meldgaard’s New Ondomo and electronics, which provide a modern sheen.
The album begins with the sound of flowing water, setting the mood for what is to come. ‘Joyfully, we leave the tended garden” may be short, but its connection to place is crucial. Even when the instrumentalists enter, they leave room for the water, an eighth player. As it flows directly into the next piece, one imagines the performers next to the fountains, even though they are recording in Copenhagen. Meldgaard’s notes sound like happy birds, dipping in and out of the water, shaking their wings; the choir’s higher notes suggest flight.
Today’s vocabulary word is xerophyte, a plant that needs very little water. Many spaces are apparent in the track of the same name, implying that a track doesn’t always need sound. The times of drought are imitated by spaces of silence in which things continue to grow. The album’s briefest track, “Til seas do us part,” is followed by the album’s longest. The first, suffused with the sound of water, is a reminder that we are connected to water for life, not only through our love for fountains, streams and seas, but with the water that flows inside us. “Effervescence” allows for a great deal of playful exploration on the part of the performers, who once again seem enamored with the space between sound and silence.
Notes fall like raindrops in “Unabashed waveforms,” connecting the water of the heavens with the water of the fountains, artificially tamed. One remembers the joy of walking, unhurried, allowing the droplet to bounce from the roof of an extended umbrella; or huddling under an awning, hand extended to catch the droplets as they fall. “…The end is a new beginning…” celebrates the round trip of water, from sky to earth and back again, while operating as a subtle plea to protect one of our greatest natural resources. While listening, one appreciates a rainy day all the more, not only for its sounds, but for the nourishment it brings. (Richard Allen)
Mon Nov 10 00:01:21 GMT 2025