Farewell to darkness [3:10]
A Musical Map of the Underworld (Live).
Part one: Erebus [8:09]
Part two: Elysian fields [10:09]
"Cantus Umbrarum" is a poetical exploration of the Underworld, the world of shades, or stones, of memory and of oblivion. William Shelley, Baudelaire, Jules Verne, Dante, Victor Hugo sometimes appear among the rocks, the subterranean rivers and lakes: a poetical landscape is mixed with a typical Lightwave soundscape, enriched with a touch of melody. Athanasius Kircher is certainly hidden somewhere among the rocks. Music of the deep and of the dark, music of the night and of the mineral world, "Cantus" remains the craziest project we ever achieved.
As a special bonus track, the CD contains one of the 14 live concerts we played within the cave, at the end of the subterranean promenade of the audience. Close your eyes, imagine a gorgeous subterranean lake with green deep waters, some blue lights against thousand of stalactites.
Nearly 600 meters of galleries were equipped with loudspeakers and thanks to a special multi channel sound system, the audience was walking along the galleries at the rhythm of our music, slowly shifting from one loudspeaker to the other, with many spatial effects. Several thousand of people enjoyed the experience, during a whole week.
"Cantus Umbrarum" was composed for a performance in the subterranean caves of Choranche in the Vercors mountains in France, in 1996.
Christian Wittman - electronics, sound design
Christoph Harbonnier - electronics, sound design
Jacques Derégnaucourt - electronics, sound design, violin soprano, alto
Renaud Pion - bass clarinet, turkish clarinet, bass flute, Cho-Wu flute, EWI, electronics
Marie-Christine Letort, Jean-Luc Revol, John Greaves, Eric Theobald, Christian Wittman - voices.
