Tears In Rainfall: Christine Ott’s ‘Time To Die’

Have you ever heard music that was recorded so beautifully, played by such excellent musicians and composed with such a feeling, that it took your breath away? There are many albums and pieces of music that fit that category for me. I admit that I hadn’t heard the music of Christine Ott before, but with the sheer quality of her latest album ‘Time To Die’, I can’t help but champion it.

Image Credit: Mathieu Gabry

French composer Christine Ott is one of the lead players of the ondes Martenot, an instrument with the same eerie quality as the theremin, also an early twentieth century invention. However, where the theremin is controlled by proximity to volume and pitch antennas, the ondes Martenot has a keyboard. Keys can produce vibrato when moved side to side, much like a string player would on a fretboard. A drawer with extra controls is manipulated with the left hand. As well as this, a wire in front of the keys can be played for seamless transitions in notes, much like an electro-theremin. It’s this instrument on which Ott has built her career.

Christine Ott released an album in May 2020 using just the ondes Martenot called ‘Chimères (pour Ondes Martenot)’. She also joined the band of fellow French composer Yann Tiersen in the new millennium, whose earlier work was most famously used in the Jean-Pierre Jeunet film ‘Amélie’. Christine Ott has a collaboration project with musician Mathieu Gabry entitled Snowdrops, their debut album ‘Volutes’ was released in October 2020. Gabry also assists in the sessions for ‘Time To Die’, which serves as a sequel to Christine Ott’s 2016 album ‘Only Silence Remains’.

The album’s title track begins in a way you wouldn’t expect a collection of classical compositions to begin – with electronic noise. Beneath this is a rhythmic sound, also rendered in the electronic domain. As well as more traditional instruments, Christine Ott employs a Roland Jupiter 8, an early 1980’s synthesizer, and a simpler, but more modern Korg Monotron, either or both of which may be responsible for the opening sounds on ‘Time To Die’.

‘I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time…to die.’

As the noise dissipates, and Ott alters the parameters on her instruments, a wind blowing a gale reveals a more harmonious sound which may be played on the ondes Martenot. Through the howling of the wind, the voice of Casey Brown can be heard reading a passage from Ridley Scott’s ‘Blade Runner’. Brown would also appear reading a longer passage during Christine Ott’s ‘Disaster’, the final piece on ‘Only Silence Remains’.

With the conclusion of Brown’s speech comes the unnerving pace of timpani, also played by Ott, though Mathieu Gabry contributes to the title track too. There is a sparing use of tubular bells by Ott, and the occasional piercing sounds would lend itself well as a film soundtrack. The entirety of the opening composition is visual, how could a listener not be enticed to proceed further?

As the last drops of rain fall in ‘Time To Die’, a few lone piano notes signal the beginning of ‘Brumes’. After the emotional intensity of the title track, the simplicity of hearing Christine Ott playing a single instrument is welcome. The presence of the room is really felt in Brumes, and the exquisite nature of the instrument Ott plays can’t be understated. Such tone and warmth could never truly be emulated with a keyboard or on software.

‘Landscape’ is Time To Die’s first single, released at the beginning of March. The siren-like vocals heard here are those of Christine Ott. Listen in headphones to hear her clear and soaring tone drift around the stereo mix, an effect that would be magnified ten-fold if this album were to be mixed in surround sound. The album’s mix was completed in the Spring of 2020 by Benoît Burger with Mathieu Gabry. The effect is at times both haunting and comforting, though I lean towards the latter if you take the composition as a whole with the piano performance.

Ott takes to the harp in this next track, utterly drenched in reverb to the point of manifesting a small amount of white noise beneath it. Ott’s performance is dynamic and exploratory, taking on a new dimension with the cavernous sounds manifested in digital post-production. The lower end is like some eight-foot-tall monster skulking in the shadows, while the notes in the opposite direction sound like diamonds dripping into an underground lake.

The album’s flipside begins with ‘Horizons Fauves’ which features more input from Mathieu Gabry. The opening scraping sounds are quite possibly those of piano strings, traditionally used as a sound-effect for decades. The piano performance on Horizons Fauves (which Google tells me translates to ‘Tawny Horizons’) is my favourite on the album so far. More electronic instrumentation can be heard, but not quite at the level as the A-side’s opener.

‘Comma Opening’ no doubt begins with Ott’s trademark ondes Martenot, and what a curious title – what exactly does ‘Comma Opening’ mean? The ondes Martenot here ventures from sounding almost like beautiful whale-song to a microphone running feedback. I imagine live sound for a performance using this instrument must be very difficult to control. Despite this, its utterly hypnotic and drawing power is undeniable.

It’s magnificent that an artist who just released an entire album of ondes Martenot music would still have something to say with this instrument so soon afterwards. Indeed, Time To Die’s recording journey began in 2012 and finished up in 2019, perhaps this piece was conceived at a similar time? My favourite aspect of this instrument is despite its electronic nature, how it can carry the organic sound of a cello in its tone.

‘Miroirs’ is the second single, released at the end of March. This one also has the honour of being included as sheet music with a special deluxe edition of the album, as well as extra writings from Christine Ott. Miroirs is the shortest piece on Time To Die and is performed on piano. This composition reminds me of the chord progression used in ‘Your Star’, a largely piano-centred song on U.S. band Evanescence’s album ‘The Open Door’. It shows that classical and popular music are never truly too far apart.

The beginning to the album closer ‘Pluie’ is ominous, as the rainfall heard earlier resumes. A wonderful sound here is the dual playing of piano and ondes Martenot, bringing an ethereal quality to the piece. Vibraphone can be heard too, performed either by Christine Ott or Mathieu Gabry (or both?) Hammer impacts tubular bell, but the pace is not so urgent as the title track. This is more of a walk through a gloomy cemetery in half-light. There is muted timpani, not played at full force, but leaving you feeling unsettled at the album’s conclusion. Is the story complete? Or will there be a third installment?

Image Credit: Jean-Pierre Rosenkranz

1. Your new album 'Time To Die' is a stunning collection of compositions, what was the time-frame for writing these pieces?

The schedule was flexible and without pressure and I had the chance and liberty to be able to move forward at my own pace. Some piano pieces had already been recorded during the sessions of "Only Silence Remains" and were waiting patiently... For "Pluie", it was firstly a piano solo piece. But I wanted to have it more orchestral; it was a quite long process, I tried different arrangements, different orchestrations over the years. And I was sometimes waiting for the possibility of recording the percussion that I don't have at home; the timpani, the tubular bells, the vibraphone that I had in mind... My idea was to have a very orchestrated opening and ending for "Time To Die", like a symbolic closing circle, and with the same concrete sounds, the rain, the storm... For the first track, I recorded almost everything by myself, layer by layer. Almost 40 separated tracks I think... But each piece has its own way of composing! Some of them have been very spontaneous, very fresh, like "Chasing Harp". It was just an improvisation on some student's harp, as I had never played the harp before...  For others, especially "Pluie", I wrote the scores, came back to it, sometimes to change the arrangement or orchestration.

2. The title track is a very visual piece, what images do you think of when you play this composition?

Yes you're right. "Time To Die" is an essential piece for me, a powerful opening and which appeal to a cinematographic world that I particularly like. Here, of course, strong images from the world of Blade Runner, of Metropolis, of Soylent Green... But also my own imaginary world with very intimate images and sensations, and contrasted feelings.

3. In general, when composing is there a specific place you go to write? Or could the writing location change depending on the project you're writing for?

The first gesture of composition for me always comes from improvisation which can surprise me anytime, anywhere in a very spontaneous way if there is a piano. Then comes the phase where I take very quick notes in pencil to remember the theme or at best, I can record with an Edirol just to memorize. Then, the last writing time is usually done at home, I feel well to write the score at home.

4. The piano sound on 'Brumes' is beautiful. What was the piano used to record this piece? What was the space it was recorded in?

For "Brumes", I had the chance to record on a grand piano from the conservatoire of Strasbourg (where I'm teaching the Ondes Martenot and also a Music & Cinema workshop), on a Steinway I'm really in love with, in a large audition room. Mathieu did the recording of this piece in a special way, which adds to the nervous and powerful side of the piece.

5. Mathieu Gabry contributes various elements to the sound across this album, what was it like to work with him on these compositions?

In fact, we are quite used to working together; it's very natural and also very intuitive for me to work with him. We have a side-project together called Snowdrops, and we also composed music for theater and cinema, like for the film "Manta Ray" by Aronpheng Phuttiphong, awarded at the Venice Biennale in 2018. I think we are very complementary and working together is really cool! For Time to Die, Mathieu recorded parts of keyboards, mellotron, vibraphone on some pieces... And as I said he also recorded the piano of "Brumes", or did some effects on the "Chasing Harp" before the mix of Benoît Burger.

6. The deluxe edition features sheet music for 'Miroirs', was it difficult choosing just one piece to include on sheet music? If you could include one other piece, what would it be?

It was not so easy to choose the piece. Maybe, if I could include another piece, I would have included "Landscape". But in fact, my very first idea would have been to choose "Brumes" because when I'm playing this piece "live" it's such a strong feeling inside my body and sometimes I get goosebumps on the second part of the piece. Of course this is very personal and I was not sure that my listeners' pianists would share those feelings. Maybe, the romantic part of my personality?

7. The artwork by Renaud Allirand really matches the sound of this record, did you give him much direction on the style of painting you wanted?

In fact, it's an amazing story with the artwork by Renaud Allirand. I discovered his work in a little beautiful gallery in Chavignol, in the center of France. I really fell in love with an artwork he did, which was very close to the artwork of the album but in red colour. I talked a long time with Brigitte Garnier-Laporte who owns the gallery and we really had a very nice discussion about Renaud's work but also music and art. Brigitte was our beautiful messenger and she made the link with Renaud and put us in touch. Then, I discovered on Instagram this other blue engraving which immediately spoke to me for the album, because the blue was obvious for me. I immediately knew that I had to find a way to work with Renaud's world, the powerful black lines of the engraving, but also the transparency of the colors, and the blue, as in "Miroirs" and "Pluie". ...So in fact, I didn't give him any direction, it was like an obvious fact and a spontaneous encounter between his beautiful artwork and the story told by my album! 

8. Outside of your own music, you worked with Yann Tiersen for quite some time. What's your favourite memory of working with him?

I have a lot of very strong memories but maybe what I liked a lot and what is quite rare in collaborations is the trust he gave me and the musical freedom he left me, as well as all the musicians who accompanied him on stage, and for such a long time. I was touring with Yann for approximately ten years... It was sometimes confusing to have so much freedom, but at the same time it allowed us to bring a color and a very personal touch to his music on stage. Also, what I liked about Yann, is that he had trusted me to play on other instruments than the Ondes Martenot. I was not a simple "ondist" with him, but a multi-instrumentalist, and I sang sometimes ... I loved singing with the other musicians of the group in choir, especially with Robin Allender.

9. Yann Tiersen's 'À quai' appears both on 'L'Absente' and the soundtrack for 'Amélie', but which album was it originally intended for?

Would be of course surer to ask directly to Yann but I think for Amélie he didn't really compose for the movie but worked with synchronisation to images of his music which already exists. So I think ''L'absente'' was before...

10. Finally, once the world returns to normality, can your fans expect to see 'Time To Die' performed live in its entirety? 

I already used to play some piano pieces from "Time To Die" on stage, mostly abroad, or a piece like "Horizons fauves" that I played quite often, in solo or in duet, accompanied by Mathieu Gabry on keyboards. But "Time To Die" in its entirety would be the dream... It would be great to imagine that some festival would invite me, surrounded by many musicians on stage, especially for the most orchestrated pieces like "Time To Die" and "Pluie". It would be amazing to imagine five or six musicians, playing timpani, tubular bells and ondes Martenot with me... Great idea!

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Purchase Christine Ott’s ‘Time To Die’ on CD, vinyl and download as well as her other works on her Bandcamp page.

For more information about Christine Ott, visit her official website.

Follow Christine Ott on Instagram and Twitter @christine_ott_, and on Facebook @christineottmusic.

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