Written On Water

If you really really love music, you should own this. This is pure and beautiful minimal music in the vein of Steve Reich, Harold Budd and Brian Eno with hints of Philip Glass. To top it off it is packaged in a crafty letter pressed casing. You can listen to a sample on the website.

Robert Haigh is well known as the respected drum and bass producer Omni Trio. However during the 80s he produced experimental (modern classical) music and now he is returning to his roots. I wrote about his previous and equally wonderful album here (in Dutch).

In the words of Robert Haigh himself:

“[Written on Water] came out of the attempt to find a balance between two of my major interests: counterpoint and economy of structure.

Most music has some form of counterpoint, how one sound or tone relates to another is the key to evoking possibility; an E note paired with an Eb creates an openness where several potentialities of key and structure are suggested. Using too many tones or sounds can have the opposite effect and limit possibilities by over definition – this is where my second preoccupation; economy of structure, comes in.

Structurally instrumental in this is the use of gradual development and apparent repetition. I say ‘apparent’ because in reality no repetition can be found. Every note, tone, sound, etc. is always in a completely new space, unfolding as uncharted flow in the moment.

This quality of ‘always new’ was the inspiration for the title. Like writing on a surface that leaves no trace with every mark, music is the perfect expression (and metaphor) of how ever-fresh reality is when unmediated by the freeze framing of conceptual thought.”