REVIEW OF BOOK OF DUSTS

After last year’s poetically poignant Songs of Love and Loss (Eilean Rec.), Israeli violist, composer, & multidisciplinary artist Emmanuel Witzthum debuts on Fluid Audio with another exploration of elegaic beauty on The Book of Dusts. The album comprises a suite of starkly resonant pieces and interludes that ache with a palpable mournfulness. After leaving the listener in near ruins with the closing “Book of loss”, a kind and comforting respite is offered in the form of two efflorescent long form pieces by e+i, Witzthum’s ambient project along with Craig Tattersall aka The Humble Bee.

EMMANUEL WITZTHUM AND CRAIG TATTERSALL SUBTLY CREATE A FACSIMILE OF TCHAIKOVSKY’S NINE SACRED PIECES - A SERIES OF CHORAL WORKS WRITTEN BETWEEN 1884-1885 - WHICH THEY TREAT TO CREATE A GAUZY SENSE OF DETACHMENT BETWEEN THE RELIGIOUS CONNOTATIONS OF THE SOURCE MATERIAL AND THE MUSIC’S ELEMENTAL, EMOTIVE PULL, IN THE PROCESS EFFECTIVELY RESULTING A COLLECTION OF SONGS THAT ARE THE SAME BUT NEW, DREAMILY DIFFERENT.

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RELEASED IN MARCH ON THE SAME EILEAN REC. LABEL AS COME ON LET’S WAIT, EMMANUEL WITZTHUM’S SONGS OF LOVE AND LOSS IS A MONUMENTAL JOURNEY GUIDED BY SUSTAINED VIOLA AND ELECTRONIC AMBIENCE. SPLIT INTO FOUR PIECES, THE RECORD FINDS THE ISRAELI VIOLIST MOURNFULLY STRETCHING AND STRAINING HIS STRING INSTRUMENT OVER A BED OF GAUZY DIGITAL ATMOSPHERES. EACH SONG ACCUMULATES, EXPANDS, AND CONTRACTS ITS WAY TO UNDERSTATED CLIMAXES, WHILE THE ELECTRONIC FX HEIGHTENS ITS OTHERWORLDLY ANGUISH.

SONGS OF LOVE AND LOSS - THE ALBUM RESONATES WITH INTENSITY OF FEELING AND INDESCRIBABLE BEAUTY. THE ALBUM BEGINS WITH COMPELLING PORTRAITS OF VIVID AUTUMNAL MELANCHOLY AND PENSIVE WINTRY STILLNESS GRADUALLY ALLOWING LIGHT TO SEEP INTO THE FINAL TWO MOVEMENTS AS SPRING BLOSSOMS WITH HOPE AND SUMMER IS BATHED IN A WARM GLOW OF PEACEFUL ACCEPTANCE IF NOT SERENITY. IN SO CAPABLY LEVERAGING SEASON AS METAPHOR AND TRANSLATING THIS INTO MUSIC, WITZTHUM TAKES THE LISTENER ON A POETIC, POIGNANT AND PICTURESQUE JOURNEY THAT CANNOT BE SOON FORGOTTEN.

SONGS OF LOVE AND LOSS - WITZTHUMS DEEPLY HUMANISTIC VOICE RECALLS THE ABILITY OF KRZYZTOF KIESLOWSKI’S IN THAT HE IS ABLE TO BE BOTH DEEPLY PERSONAL AND GRANDLY CINEMATIC. “SONGS OF LOVE AND LOSS” IS A SUNNING LISTEN AND A GREAT ACHIEVEMENT FOR WITZTHUM AS AN ARTIST. IT SHOULD BE ON EVERYONE’S “DO-NOT-MISS” LIST FOR 2018.

JAZZTHETIK - REVIEW OF THE PREMIER OF "VERWEILE DOCH DU BIST SO SCHOEN" PERFORMED BY ENSEMBLE MODERN AT THE MANNHEIM OPERA HOUSE COMMISSIONED BY THE ENJOY JAZZ FESTIVAL.

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An Inch of Air by e&i (Emmanuel Witzthum and Craig Tattersall) - From the Paavoharju-like small-sound blur of 'Tiniest Smile' to the ferric eroded drone topography of 'The Incredible Softness', into the anachronistic meld of folk strings and majestic miniature electronic symphony of 'Timelessness And Time', and the pastoral cadence of 'A Stranded Star', we're left heart in mouth and completely at their will. Beautiful material - no snoozing with this one.

The Book of Dusts - The music descends like muted memory, golden strings stretching over an arid horizon that may be an extended family, feet close together, thoughts far apart. Light bass arrives like consolation: words that fail to comfort at the time, but will do so in time, after the initial wave of sorrow has passed.

The Book of Dusts - Delicacy is the word here, and the strings offer up a lean melody: no fat on the bones, but neither are they skeletal or malnourished. Instead, they evoke the bare branch of a tree in the depths of December. When warmth seems so far away, but there’s still something beautiful to behold. Something priceless, even. Witzthum is able to capture something of winter, some important essence and emotion – loneliness or the ache of nostalgia or of a beloved time forever erased, like snow falling on top of snow – and it oozes out of the music, creating something of lasting importance. Don’t ever forget, it says.
Like that lone tree, the tone is a stark offering, but it’s still able to sway, and it still produces a copious amount of fruit. There’s still so much emotional depth, gathering at the edges of its leather-bound harmonies, quality dripping like ink over a gilted page, in spite of or because of its minimal framework, one will have to individually judge. The music’s written in a fine, spidery font. The Book of Dusts will draw listeners into its literary haven.

This is a record of space, space, and more space; submersion and immersion in equal measure. The bright and warm harmonies are muffled and distant, sometimes edging close to silence and sometimes on the verge of breaking up. But one common theme runs through it all, and that’s the ambient harmony, which is always a Heavenly sound, moving with grace and transparency. It finds itself in the midst of subtle tweaks here and there, but the tones remain similar throughout. If you’re looking for deep ambient listening, you’ve found it. the music has both continuous depth and a glowing beauty, and it fits in with Letra’s ethos. This is a record of space, space, and more space; submersion and immersion in equal measure. The bright and warm harmonies are muffled and distant, sometimes edging close to silence and sometimes on the verge of breaking up. But one common theme runs through it all, and that’s the ambient harmony, which is always a Heavenly sound, moving with grace and transparency. It finds itself in the midst of subtle tweaks here and there, but the tones remain similar throughout. If you’re looking for deep ambient listening, you’ve found it.