Ariel Kalma, Jeremiah Chiu, Marta Sofia Honer – The Closest Thing to Silence LP
A collection of collage style ambient, new age, jazz, electronic pieces from the legendary French composer and one of Los Angeles’ most exciting experimental duos. Kalma’s woodwinds weave together seamlessly with Sofia Honer’s viola and Chiu’s drum machines/samplers producing an otherworldly sound that reaches into the past and out to the future.
The collection of music on ‘The Closest Thing to Silence’ highlights the work of all three musicians, intertwining the contextual immersion heard on Chiu & Honer’s ‘Recordings from the Åland Islands’ with an intergenerational reverence for (and the undeniable presence of) Kalma’s decades-spanning body of work. It is work that has definitively enshrined him as one of the true, transcendent pioneers and sages of new age and fourth-world music.
That reverence is affirmed by the album title chosen by the group — “The Closest Thing to Silence” — which is taken from a quote by Kalma included in a documentary by RVNG Intl (as part of their release of the 2014 compendium/retrospective An Evolutionary Music). Perhaps coincidental, Kalma’s quote was a slight modulation of a legendary ECM Records motto, as he said: “Music is the closest thing to silence.”
A1 Ten Hour Wave 3:25
A2 Breathing In Three Orbits (Intro) 0:45
A3 Breathing In Three Orbits 5:59
A4 The Closest Thing To Silence 3:52
A5 Dizzy Ditty 4:33
A6 Une Ombre Légère 4:23
B1 New Air 2:25
B2 Écoute Au Loin 6:02
B3 A Treasure Chest 6:12
B4 Stay Centered 2:15
B5 Stack Attack 6:29