Snowdrops - Volutes [Injazero Records 013 Promo]

Released via Injazero Records on October 16th, 2k20 is "Volutes", the seven track sophomore album by Snowdrops, the Chamber Music-leaning duo comprised by Mathieu Gabry and Christine Ott who've been performing under this conjunctional guise since 2015. Based on strings, piano and the electronic instrument named Ondes Martenot alongside other minor instrumental additions the pair opens their musical journey with "Comma (Variation 1)", a somewhat yearning, melancholia-infused and surely desolate piece of score'esque (Neo)Classical music drawing part of its fascination from the distinct sonic influence of the space it's been recorded in whereas "Trapezian Fields" explores deep and dreamlike piano elegies alongside complimenting, slightly kitschy electronic atmospheres which are taking us back to the 80s in some form or another whilst "Ultraviolet" is as innocent and naturalistic as dew-covered meadows sparkling in (very...) early morning sunlight. The subsequent "Eloge De L'Errance" is an exercise in cascading crystalline piano romanticisms, "Inception" provides more deeply touching string and pad arrangements for inward looking rainy afternoons accompanied by a soft, yet dynamic piano motif before "Odysseus" finally weighs in some long awaited darkness and droning drama before the softer, light-hearted and hyper-harmonic side of the duo takes over again, leading the way towards "Comma (Variation 2)" which finally closes the circle on a peaceful and soothing end theme vibe which provides beauty and hope and a vision of a silver lining at the horizon for all those shaken by these trouble times. Quite a sugar-coated one, this, and therefore maybe a little too much for both lovers of score and (Neo)Classical music even though we're sure there surely is an audience for exactly this kind of super comforting musical vision out there.