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Aurélie Dorzée : Horror Vacui (B,2008)****
Aurélie in a relatively short time has impressed with many projects. After her studies in which she won the first prize for violin she also studied improvisation with Garret List, and then toured with traditional folk chamber band Pantha Rhei for 5 years. Then she was part of several trios like Trio Trad with Luc Pilartz and Didier Laloy, also as a duo with Luc Pilartz, trio Aurélia with Tom Theuns and Stephan Pougin, also with a Persian percussionist, and then another project with Jean-Christophe Renault.
This new project is mostly a solo project it's subject dealing with fear of emptiness, perhaps also with the dissolving of a bodily existence into or from the world. More likely it sounds like a dance circling around that point, or like a sad introspection with a song, with memories of a child-like existence. The first introductionary track very much sounds like an imitation or variation of the Czech artist (violinist/singer) Iva Bittova, but with a, for this track, more smoked and overdubbed voice, before the song cycle really starts. “Those who have the wind in their head” (actually in French) recalls Edith Piaff on podium, repeating some phrase like “ the turning and turning”, like in a dance. Between the songs there are some improvisations led by plucked and bowed alt violin and voice sometimes, returning to the voice/violin improvised musical theme in the intro, but more in her own ways. On the title track she uses a breathing voice theme, just like in the "tradition" of what Merdith Monk or Sheila Chandra once did before her, with some very sparse occasional other arrangements. You have the feeling a story has been told and expressed, like in a musical theatre form, vaguely moving from one image to the next while being moved by this subject and expressing some thoughts and images from it.
Another professional, perfect to listen to album from this great Belgium label.
