Nicole Lizée – Zonely Hearts
Kronos Quartet; Nicole Lizée
Centrediscs CMCCD 34625 (centrediscs.bandcamp.com/album/nicole-liz-e-zonelyhearts)
When longtime friends and collaborators such as the Kronos Quartet and Nicole Lizée build a project after 16 years, you can expect something extraordinary. Zonely Hearts, the latest from Kronos, is the delicious party we all get to attend.
Beginning with Death to Kosmische, Lizée begins to weave her magic, reflecting on her “love/hate relationship with the idea of genres.” The immediate dissection of the Kosmische style (a 1970s West German experimental electronic genre focused on ambient, space-inspired soundscapes and innovative synthesizer use) is superbly described by blending “archaic” technologies with composed strings to emulate delays and effects. The quartet becomes a single entity, nearly a parody of the former style while holding it up to the light for the transparencies to blossom layer by layer through the magic of Lizée’s compositional creativity.
The Golden Age of the Radiophonic Workshop (Fibre-Optic Flowers) was born from a BBC project in the 1960s where electronic music was beginning to take shape, and sound sources were gleaned from everyday objects. Organic sounds were then recorded and shaped electronically. Lizée takes the former workshop even further by creating a palette of sounds played in real time, melding synthetic sounds with the analog objects in a structured musical expression.
Black Midi’s title refers to the layering of thousands of notes on MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface), virtually “blackening” it; here the composer uses it as a starting point, exploring the possibility of being in the style of film shorts where the performers enhance or manipulate each scene, and the compositional technique is nothing short of brilliant in its effect.
The final track Zonely Hearts takes cues from Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone; being the most recently composed piece (2021–2023), it’s more relevant than ever, describing “mind control, censorship, surveillance, brainwashing, and revisionist history through altering and banning books.” Here the quartet confirms their bond with the composer, becoming one relentless entity of humanity in a sea of restlessness.
The booklet artwork aptly describes the music, and a DVD of live performances is included.
