Murcof: The Versailles Sessions

In 2007 Murcof was commissioned by Les Grandes Eaux Nocturnes (an annual festival at Château de Versailles in France) to compose music to accompany an evening fountain display at the event.

The result is the compelling six song suite The Versailles Sessions. If you are interested in sound beyond songs, digital manipulations and electronica but are usually averse to abstract music, this release may well cross over into your taste. Much like William Basinski does with his tape loops or Antony Hegarty does with his voice, Murcof has the ability to appeal to me when the genres they are placed in generally do not.

A few years ago I visited the Cité De La Musique in Paris. At the time the museum there was exhibiting a phenomenal collection of baroque (and older) instruments, including immense French horns, harpsichords, viols, baroque guitars and an incredible array of woodwind instruments; many of which have faded into obscurity as instruments in the West have become more and more homogenised through the demands and conformity of mass production. For this commission a handful of Paris based musicians who specialise in such instruments were hired, primarily playing the harpsichord, viola da gamba, flute and violin (and a mezzo soprano).

Fernando Corona (Murcof) is best known for his composition of electronic sound and his label Leaf clearly states that this is to be considered a one-off project rather than the follow on to his last album Cosmos. Remembering the afternoon spent in that museum in awe of the heritage and skill of both the craftsmen and players gives me great respect for Corona. He has managed to arrange and process the sound recordings of these instruments in a manner inconceivable to their makers, without obscuring their character or timbre. On many of the compositions he in fact gives the unique tone of a single instrument the rare opportunity to be heard in and of itself, albeit subtly augmented by effects or accompanied by an atmospheric drone or repetitive motion. When the trilling flute first appears a few minutes into ‘Welcome to Versailles’ it is genuinely heart stopping. It materializes like a hawk suddenly landing on your hand: both daunting and hypnotic.

‘Lullys Turquerie As Interpreted By An Advance Script’ is the only piece to feature actual click beats as opposed to a repeating percussive sample. I assume from the title that the repeating woodwind pattern is a Turquerie (music influenced by a 16th to 18th century fashion that appropriated Turkish styles) by the French composer, dancer and libertine Lully. It concludes with what sounds to me like a bass recorder repeating a few urgent notes. Here and elsewhere Murcof’s use of reverb and echo (natural or digital…) allows the incidental sounds of an instrument to interact with the tone, rather than solely focus on the note or melody.

‘A Lesson For The Future Farewell To The Old Ways’ reminded me of Dead Can Dance, and there is an entrancing gothic/industrial inclination to this record. When the achingly mournful female vocals slowly disappear behind a veil of processed strings an un-manipulated harpsichord rings out clear; Corona allows it to speak a while, before drowning it in the trippy gurgle of an oscillator.

Murcof clearly approached this composition earnestly, hoping to resonate with the audience at the festival, the history of (particularly French) baroque music and the musicians he was working with. I believe he has also achieved a fourth goal, to resonate with listeners, like myself, who have little or no knowledge of the above.