Jean Dousteyssier, Antonin-Tri Hoang, Jean-Brice Godet, Julien Pontvianne

The record holds one piece only: Coral, Watt’s own collective composition, a little over thirty minutes. The three commissioned pieces that appear on the digital edition (Arbres by Léo Dupleix, For 4 clarinets by Karl Naegelen, Olim by Caroline Marçot) were issued on a boxed set of three infinite cassettes, now sold out, and are not on this vinyl.

Long, tenuous, secretive, Watt’s net of sound closes in on the listener, in minute variations, hypnotically, from the first breath to the last. Using the clarinet as a veritable transmitter of waves, they create a drone that densifies, thickens, dilates, drips and dilutes without relaxing its hold on our imagination. They come full circle, making us lose track of time. Four of them sound like one. But unity is only on the surface. Everything lies beneath…