Since 2011, the compositional project of Eliane Radigue (b. 1932) has been a series of pieces titled Occam; at the time of writing there are over 80 such pieces. The title is derived from Occam's razor, the principle that all else being equal, explanations and choices which are simple are likely also to be the best. The musical material for Occam Delta XV for string quartet is certainly minimal, though the listening experience is anything but.
This release from the Montreal-based Quatuor Bozzini, published on their own label, was recorded in the Panthéon in Paris in November 2021. A huge cathedral-like space that looks from the outside like a Greek temple, the neoclassical Panthéon is a national site of homage to great men (and a very few women) of the past. A video released alongside their album, made by Gilles Paté, offers glimpses of the building and of Foucault's famous pendulum, which is housed inside.Footnote 1 The CD features two interpretations of the quartet, both just over 35 minutes in duration, with the first being over a minute longer than the second. In the sleeve note, the first violinist, Alissa Cheung, says, ‘You can't recreate the performance, it's so much about the time and the place.’ Cheung rightly believes that the quartet demands ‘an extended listening mode, between meditation and hyperconsciousness’.
Like the other pieces in the Occam series, this work is not so much written for a particular medium as for a particular performer or group of performers. Occam Delta XV was developed through a collaborative process with Quatuor Bozzini, who are its dedicatees. Kate Molleson interviewed Radigue for her fascinating book Sound within Sound, and one insight she gleaned was: ‘Every new piece in the Occam series begins with Radigue and a performer sitting down in her apartment and talking about water.’Footnote 2 In fact, the Occam Ocean works in the series are for ensemble – suggesting a larger body of water – while Occam Delta are for chamber formations, Occam River for a duo, and those simply titled Occam are for a solo instrumentalist. The quartet write in their programme note that Occam Delta XV (2018) ‘is like jumping in a lake when you know the water might be cold. It's a question of trusting the people you're playing with.’
The experience of watching the sea, or being immersed in water, is probably the best analogue for a listening experience which is ever changing and yet eternally the same. Occam Delta XV consists of long sustained string lines and a constant four-part texture. This is a completely non-hierarchical work, with all four voices having equal value and making an equally important contribution. Quatuor Bozzini play without vibrato: their sound is at the same time pure and yet not in any way austere. Molleson writes that Radigue's music is all about ‘perpetual transition’, ‘a recurring process of fade-in, fade-out, cross-fade’, and links this to her musical origins as a composer of musique concrete.Footnote 3 But the rich circular droning of Occam Delta XV never sounds electronic: the cello usually sounds more like a murmur, and the deep listening the piece prompts means that we are aware of a bow changing direction, of the friction of hair on string, of harmonics and resonances. Occasionally the ear is drawn to one or other of the voices: I found my attention shifting, creating my own path through the music. Is that a violin line ascending, the viola suddenly bringing itself to my attention? Quatuor Bozzini realise an extraordinary feat of concentration and sustained bowing, enabling us as listeners to immerse ourselves completely in the soundworld. The very long fade-out in the last ten minutes or so of the first performance is just one illustration of their astonishing control.
The two performances are of course different from each other: on one occasion I found the second performance rather more fragile and attenuated in the middle of the work than the first one, though I did not feel this was the case on another listen. Either this is an extremely novel type of CD where the performance actually changes each time it is played, or my personal journey through each performance was different each time I listened. Perhaps this is because the music facilitates deep reflection and provides a space for the listener to bring something of themselves to the music? Whatever your own journey through this fascinating recording will be, prepare for an immersive and time-altering experience.
