A companion release to Ftarri Classical 658 (which includes 'his master's voice), this was recorded on the same date with the same instrumentalists, Kei Kondo on horn and Takahiro Kuroda on upright piano. Here, however, a single piece is performed.
As with much of Houben's music, the score is fairly open ended. From Kuroda's liner notes: "...the pitches of notes are predetermined, but the moment in which those notes are played and the length of the notes are left up to the musicians." In this reading, many of the notes are sustained, especially those of the horn. Played purely, allowed to hang like a straight line in the sky, often with low, somewhat foreboding piano tones working beneath. While the course of the music, naturally enough, shifts throughout, the tendency is toward the lower end of the spectrum, Kondo occasionally employing deep harmonics.
The overall attitude, common to Houben's work, is that of calm thoughtfulness, of close examination of sonic properties and, just once in a while, a glimmer of "traditional" tonalities, here heard in the odd arpeggio from Kuroda. But more, it's simply there, an open, direct exposition of two humans recreating a score, no nonsense. echo fantasy II is a clear, very beautiful recording, one of the finest in an extremely large and fine oeuvre from Ms. Houben.
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