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Music for Time
by Jean-Pierre Saccomanni
MCP Productions, 2002
Contact: jean-pierre.saccomanni@wanadoo.fr
This French import provides a mixed salad of spacey Eurotronics and
synthesized “modern classical-“ sounding music. In the first few tracks,
Saccomanni follows the path of the electronic weirdness of early Tangerine
Dream, Klaus Schulze, and the French-German group “Lightwave.” Saccomanni
shows a classical background in his choice of variety and pacing, chords
both atonal and impressionistic, and his keyboard work. But he’s also aware
of the more avant-garde heritage of European electronic music which has been
produced since the fifties. Sometimes his work sounds like “classical”
avant-garde from years back composers like Stockhausen, Xenakis, Ligeti.
His electronic tonalities, though they are from up-to-date equipment, are in
line with much earlier work done on ancient analog oscillators and tape
manipulation devices. It’s an impressive blend of old and new.
The first two tracks, “Cold Scene” and “Variations on a Clepsydra,” show
this blend best. “Cold Scene” sounds like the aforementioned “Lightwave,”
with a whirling maelstrom of sound, while “Clepsydra” (meaning “water
clock”) is a “theme and variations” piece done for electronics and loops,
based on fanfare-like fifths which move into more complex harmonies as the
piece continues. Tracks three and four, “Music for Time,” and “Some times
ago,” sound like the score for a scary science-fiction horror movie, full of
startling moments and spooky drones.
Saccomanni is less successful with his last two tracks, “Having only one
Time,” and “Nostalgia.” In these pieces, he abandons his science fiction
milieu and presents something like “pop classical” music, all played on the
“orchestral” synthesizer which despite using sampled instrument sounds,
cannot help sounding artificial. These attempts at a more “traditional” type
of music ramble on aimlessly, though “Nostalgia” manages to find a rhythm
and melody after the first 9 minutes. I would recommend the alien
electronics of the earlier pieces rather than the conventional material
later on.
Hannah M.G. Shapero
12/11/02
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