French composer Christine Ott might have come to prominence due to her use and innovations for Ondes Martenot, for some a peculiar instrument with an intriguing sound, and for her collaborations with Yan Tiersen, Tindersticks, and Chilly Gonzales.
Yet, there is much more to her work and compositional style, which she presents on her latest album for the ’regular’ acoustic piano simply titled Éclats (Piano Works).
Yet, when you look up the translation for Éclats, things turn out to be much more complex and nuanced, just like Ott’s music and interpretations on this album
It turns out that Éclats can be sparkles, brightness, splendor, shards, splinters, loud (or not-so-loud) noises, voices, bursts of laughter, and more.
And it is this careful choice of a title that actually exemplifies the music Ott presents here – it is all of those meanings that run through both her compositions and playing from sparkles and tonal shards to brightness and splendour, where nuances and pauses have an equal share and meaning with full-fledged notes.
It turns out that Éclats’shows that Christine Ott is much more than just an Ondes Martenot innovator, but also an excellent composer and pianist.
