textura

Doriene Marselje: Interference
TRPTK

In capturing Doriene Marselje's fervent desire to expand the harp's reach, Interference effectively documents the logical next step in her personal and professional journey. Her development on the instrument evolved one natural step at a time, from the moment she first discovered harp at the age of six to the formal studies she undertook at the Utrecht Conservatory, the Amsterdam Conservatory, and finally the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, where she earned her Master's degree in 2012. In the years since, she's pushed ahead artistically and dedicated herself to resetting the boundaries associated with the harp, as this collection of contemporary classical material shows. Since 2022, she's given back in another way by teaching at the Fontys Academy of Music and Performing Arts and facilitating the love up-and-comers have for the instrument.

Marselje received full support from TRPTK when the label gave her carte blanche for the album, and she made good on the opportunity by coupling existing works with two she commissioned for the project. In the former category are ones by Toshio Hosokawa and Kaija Saariaho and in the latter new creations by Valerio Sannicandro and Tony Roe. Each composer builds on the traditional sound world associated with the harp with inspired concepts and approaches. In his long-form Cortex, Sannicandro asks the performer to apply a number of extended techniques to generate an arresting panoply of textures and timbres; Roe, on the other hand, augments the harp with electronics to conjure a disarmingly new sound world for his four-part Interference. Marselje recorded the material during fall 2023 at a studio in Hilversum's Muziekcentrum van de Omroep and at the Studio 150 Bethlehemkerk in Amsterdam.

The musical trajectory of “Fall,” the sixth and penultimate part in Saariaho's ballet Maa, mirrors its title in descending from its initial high register and expanding as it does so. Marselje's precise pattern-making establishes ethereal calm before pivoting to a wild array of agitated flourishes, sweeps, and strums. Over the course of fifteen immersive minutes, Sannicandro's Cortex explores an intense sound universe teeming with harp- and voice-generated elements. After beginning with a resonant, low-pitched pedal buzz, Marselje obsessively fixes on a stream of aggressively plucked and strummed upper notes, the lower element faintly audible as an undercurrent and the harpist's breaths appearing subliminally. The two realms collide and entwine as a slowly advancing and mutating conglomeration, the music like some slow-motion swarm and the effect akin to a slow-burning nightmare coiling in on itself. As it enters its final third, the piece grows percussive with the harp strummed like a guitar, chords plucked rapidly, and the buzz of the pedal reasserting itself.

In structuring Interference in four parts, Roe gave each one a distinct character. Flirting with classical minimalism, “Omittance” initiates the work with a pretty pulsing statement that blends a rhythm-driven base with dancing melodic patterns. After the puzzling “Korenbloem,” which plays like a skeletal snippet from a Geiger counter recording, the lilting “Square Circles” reinstates the harp's crystalline timbres for a haunting tapestry of pattern-making. Opening violently, the concluding part “Duologue” explores the interplay between harp and electronics when the instrument feeds into a modular synth system that, in turn, responds by blending acoustic and electronic elements into a warbling, woofing, and eruptive mass. As a spacious meditation on the cyclical nature of existence and the phenomenology of time, Hosokawa's Re-Turning II offers a thought-provoking resolution to the album with material inspired by Zen Buddhism and Japanese aesthetics. A combination of stillness and time-suspension encourages the listener to enter into a reflective state and achieve inner calm.

As artistically satisfying and fully realized a statement as Interference is, it's important to emphasize that it represents the latest stage in her development but is hardly the final one. As Marselje was born in 1988, much lies ahead for the harpist, and no doubt this intrepid artistic force will embrace the challenges to come with as much fervour as she has the ones here. Interference is clearly but one stop along the way.

January 2025


	Doriene Marselje: Interference TRPTK In capturing Doriene Marselje's fervent desire to expand the harp's reach, Interference effectively documents the logical next step in her personal and professional journey. Her development on the instrument evolved one natural step at a time, from the moment she first discovered harp at the age of six to the formal studies she undertook at the Utrecht Conservatory, the Amsterdam Conservatory, and finally the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, where she earned her Master's degree in 2012. In the years since, she's pushed ahead artistically and dedicated herself to resetting the boundaries associated with the harp, as this collection of contemporary classical material shows. Since 2022, she's given back in another way by teaching at the Fontys Academy of Music and Performing Arts and facilitating the love up-and-comers have for the instrument. Marselje received full support from TRPTK when the label gave her carte blanche for the album, and she made good on the opportunity by coupling existing works with two she commissioned for the project. In the former category are ones by Toshio Hosokawa and Kaija Saariaho and in the latter new creations by Valerio Sannicandro and Tony Roe. Each composer builds on the traditional sound world associated with the harp with inspired concepts and approaches. In his long-form Cortex, Sannicandro asks the performer to apply a number of extended techniques to generate an arresting panoply of textures and timbres; Roe, on the other hand, augments the harp with electronics to conjure a disarmingly new sound world for his four-part Interference. Marselje recorded the material during fall 2023 at a studio in Hilversum's Muziekcentrum van de Omroep and at the Studio 150 Bethlehemkerk in Amsterdam. The musical trajectory of “Fall,” the sixth and penultimate part in Saariaho's ballet Maa, mirrors its title in descending from its initial high register and expanding as it does so. Marselje's precise pattern-making establishes ethereal calm before pivoting to a wild array of agitated flourishes, sweeps, and strums. Over the course of fifteen immersive minutes, Sannicandro's Cortex explores an intense sound universe teeming with harp- and voice-generated elements. After beginning with a resonant, low-pitched pedal buzz, Marselje obsessively fixes on a stream of aggressively plucked and strummed upper notes, the lower element faintly audible as an undercurrent and the harpist's breaths appearing subliminally. The two realms collide and entwine as a slowly advancing and mutating conglomeration, the music like some slow-motion swarm and the effect akin to a slow-burning nightmare coiling in on itself. As it enters its final third, the piece grows percussive with the harp strummed like a guitar, chords plucked rapidly, and the buzz of the pedal reasserting itself. In structuring Interference in four parts, Roe gave each one a distinct character. Flirting with classical minimalism, “Omittance” initiates the work with a pretty pulsing statement that blends a rhythm-driven base with dancing melodic patterns. After the puzzling “Korenbloem,” which plays like a skeletal snippet from a Geiger counter recording, the lilting “Square Circles” reinstates the harp's crystalline timbres for a haunting tapestry of pattern-making. Opening violently, the concluding part “Duologue” explores the interplay between harp and electronics when the instrument feeds into a modular synth system that, in turn, responds by blending acoustic and electronic elements into a warbling, woofing, and eruptive mass. As a spacious meditation on the cyclical nature of existence and the phenomenology of time, Hosokawa's Re-Turning II offers a thought-provoking resolution to the album with material inspired by Zen Buddhism and Japanese aesthetics. A combination of stillness and time-suspension encourages the listener to enter into a reflective state and achieve inner calm. As artistically satisfying and fully realized a statement as Interference is, it's important to emphasize that it represents the latest stage in her development but is hardly the final one. As Marselje was born in 1988, much lies ahead for the harpist, and no doubt this intrepid artistic force will embrace the challenges to come with as much fervour as she has the ones here. Interference is clearly but one stop along the way. January 2025