Fusing electronics with classical instruments has become a staple of modern music. The biggest names have tried their hand at it, with more or less ease. Taking on that hazardous exercise, Maud Geffray had the intelligence to not let the respectability of classical music whirl her away, nor did she try and sycophantically replicate the worksof Philip Glass; instead, she chose to focus on motifs, on the moods conjured by his music, on his method of music writing, like an attempt to get into Glass’ mind. Accompanying Maud Geffray in this extensive project, Lavinia Meijer is a Dutch harpist, a specialist of Philip Glass, recipient of many awards for her transcriptions of the famous composer’s works: the ideal partner.
Of all of Glass’ works that have been cornerstones of Maud’s childhood listening, she concentrated on two classics, Einstein on the Beach and The Photographer. "What was important to me was to find connections, bridges between these two oeuvres, to understand his system of repetition, his way of using loops that are never identical,” she explains. “The idea was not to play the sheetmusic, and that is what has seduced me. Lavina is a Glass specialist, and a marvelous performer of his music; my job was then to challenge that, to take this whole world elsewhere, to machines, to electronics, and to my own feelings.”
Recorded in a studioafter two live performances, Still Life caries deep in its heart the cinematic universe developed by Maud, notably on her album Polaar. Around the maestro’s scores, she’s managed to build a sort of dreamlike, romantic journey, both melancholic and elegiac. Throughout these eight tracks, ranging from tension to appeasement, Maud Geffray is taking Philip Glass by the hand and escorting him into a club or a rave, to show him how huge a debt current electronic music owes him.
Still Life was recorded in studio and the album is coming out on the 18th of October.