La Nuee - La Nuee [Umland Records 048]

Fresh on the circuit via Essen's Umland Records label is the new - and self-titled - album outing produced by Brussels-based saxophone outfit La Nuee which has built the three compositions on their latest longplayer around the sound of five saxophones and a drum kit. Opening with "Flottant" the six piece project explores tender, brittle and carefully layered Deep Listening drone vibrations blown over from afar whereas the subsequent piece "L'Eveil" dives even deeper into the realm of yearning, space-time defying sax-based Minimal Music providing a steady, ever evolving ebb-and-flow of sound coming from near silence, building up to somewhat klaxon'esque intensity only to die off again until a new, slightly altered circle begins, pulsating, vibrating, fluttering, yet calming even at its dynamic peak. For a closing, the 29+ minutes spanning main piece named "Le Depart" is focusing on microtonal movements and granular close-up microphone recordings of air fluctuations within the respective instruments resulting in an icey, glacial and timeless sound setting out of which, once again, calm and flickering, yet defo Ambient-leaning tonal movements emerge, accompanied by thundering war drums building up to an intense crescendo from what started from a point solemn, focused, clear and crisp, comparable to the half hour before a clear sky sunrise at high altitudes. Highly recommended, this.