Emilie Cecilia LeBel: field studies
Redshift Records
Sir Andrew Davis, renowned for conducting stints with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and others, once praised Canadian composer Emilie Cecilia LeBel for writing music “that reflects her intelligence and audaciousness.” Those qualities (and others) are present on her full-length debut, though audacity in this case is best understood as boldness of vision rather than the kind of histrionic gestures to which a less disciplined composer might be prone. LeBel's that rare composer capable of straddling contemporary and traditional idioms with ease and blending the two into distinctly personalized expressions, albeit through the prismatic lens of the performer. The five pieces on field studies, which range from solo to chamber group performances, exemplify the nuance and austerity characteristic of the seasoned artist.
Like Davis, LeBel has a connection to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, her work having been performed by the company and she having been Affiliate Composer with it from 2018 to 2022. She's also been Composer-in-Residence with the National Youth Orchestra of Canada (2015) and has seen her work performed by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Arditti Quartet, and others. She earned degrees in music composition at the University of Toronto (DMA) and York University (MA), currently teaches at MacEwan University in Edmonton, and since 2018 has been based in the Canadian Prairies on Treaty 6 Territory.
The release documents LeBel's capacity for creating long-form, patiently developing settings rich in atmosphere and distinguished by a subtle yet nonetheless audible melodic dimension. A good representation of those qualities is the album's opening setting, evaporation, blue, performed solo by pianist Cheryl Duvall. Partnering with the work's reverberant, pensive keyboard strokes are short harmonica-generated drones that help ground fragile material that unspools for a dozen explorative minutes. Drama is evident too, specifically in emphatic gestures that erupt twice during the journey. At album's end, a work of similar duration, further migration (migration no. 1), is performed by violinist Ilana Waniuk, the focus here on the microtonal claw, whistle, scrape, and swoop of a bow being dragged across strings. Again LeBel emphasizes texture over conventional melody, the result a work for solo violin that's uncompromisingly contemporary in its exploration of bow-generated effects. In such a performance, one's more reminded, in terms of execution, of someone like Tony Conrad than Anne-Sophie Mutter.
The Edmonton-based contemporary music ensemble UltraViolet—pianist Roger Admiral, alto flutist Chenoa Anderson, baritone saxophonist Allison Balcetis, and percussionist Mark Segger—performs the three central pieces, though only the woodwinds appear on the fourth. The first of the three, (deep breath) ... and the higher leaves of the trees seemed to shimmer in the last of the sunlight's lingering touch of them, augments the group with tactile transducers (on prepared bass drums) and electronics. Those additions not only bolster the textural richness of the performance but at times give it the feel of a semi-improvising chamber-jazz unit. Similar to evaporation, blue, an eruption occurs midway through to shift the music away from the material's largely sombre, even funereal tone. Perched midway between the chamber ensemble and solo performances is the one delivered by Anderson and Balcetis in even if nothing but shapes and light reflected in the glass. Again, however, the sound field expands dramatically when tactile transducers (on prepared snare and tom drums) and electronics factor into the presentation. Moody alto flute and baritone saxophone figures entwine within an expanding-and-contracting vaporous mass that's not so dominant it displaces the focus from the musicians' pensive expressions. The release's sole vocal setting is positioned midway through, drift in this case coupling singer Jane Berry with UltraViolet on an eleven-minute piece wholly free of electronic interventions. With voice added to the quartet's acoustic instrumental textures in this extended meditation, drift could pass for material by Dutch composer Louis Andriessen—never bad company to find yourself in and certainly a huge compliment to LeBel.June 2023