Variations for Light Waves

On Variations for Light Waves, attentive listening helps Talp sculpt seven pieces as elegant as they are eloquent. They were recorded over the past four years on various pipe organs across Sweden; Talp has particular fondness for “a small, beautiful pipe organ in a funeral chapel outside Stockholm, Lötsjökapellet, an incredible space for listening.” From there, Talp brought in collaborators Christer Bothén (contrabass clarinet) and Mats Äkelint (trombone) to contribute to several of the pieces.

This fondness for quietness and delicacy – for intimacy – is shadowed by an interest in what happens when instruments, and sound, are pushed to their brittle limits. Sometimes this happens slowly, as in the closing title track, where a descending run of chords dismantles itself over time, falling into beautiful lassitude. With the brief opener, “She Came Out of The White Fog”, Talp places the pipe organ under stress: “the pipes are literally gasping for their breath,” she says. “They are not getting enough air to reach up to their full tone range.”