Windy Lands by Christian Wittman

"Windy Lands" is the third opus of a climatic and ambient series started with the albums "Misty Lands" and "Frozen Lands".

This musical trilogy explores new aesthetic and sonic directions, inspired by the minimalist and neoclassical current represented by composers such as Ólafur Arnalds or Nils Frahm, but also by certain atmospheres of the ECM label.

With the contribution of string instruments and, on two tracks, of an electric guitar, "Windy Lands" would like to approach the expressivity of a small hybrid or mixed chamber music ensemble, between electronic soundscapes and acoustic sounds, thus reviving the experiments that we carried out in Lightwave, notably with the album "Bleue comme une orange".

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REVIEWS

•• "Really peaceful and relaxing wave track !" (about "Stormy Sky"). Here (Spotify playlister).

•• "CHRISTIAN WITTMAN – Music For Art Gallery
CHRISTIAN WITTMAN – Windy Lands

Two new albums of cosmic synth music, from the increasingly prolific French synthesist, and here you do indeed get two albums of original music without a rhythm in sight.

Of the two, “Art Gallery” is what you'd call the “busiest” as it features more of the piano/electric piano (I can never tell!!) with compositions ranging from just under 4, to over 7 minutes, and the depth of sound is fairly vast, for such a spacey album, so that, while there aren't huge arsenals of electronics, the textural qualities of the compositions, comes into play, so that it's got several layers on which to focus at any one time, layers that are constantly on the move, albeit slowly, and all the while, managing to retain every bit of emotion that you could wring out of such ethereal yet gorgeously compelling, spacetronic music.

“Windy Lands”, however, is an album that builds. Again, all cosmic, and this time more predominantly electronic, it starts very minimally, then, as the tracks progress, so the sonic canvas spreads out and stretches across the horizons, to reveal new textures, new layers and give the music more strength and depth, as it progresses, almost “orchestral”, in a minimal sense, on the final couple of tracks, and, overall, a worthy addition to the “Art” album, in that they come from the same beating heart, but travel in different directions."

ANDY GARIBALDI, Inkeys (UK)

Tracklist

1.	Stormy Sky (for Terje Rypdal)	7:49

2.	Oceanic Breathe	7:49

3.	Where does the wind blow from?	5:38

4.	Wind Rose	7:07

5.	Singing Clouds	4:50

6.	Sighs from the Sky	5:43

7.	The Calm After the Storm	7:08

8.	So Much for the Winds	6:40

Credits

released January 11, 2023

Composition, electronics, sound design: Christian Wittman

Special guests:
The Warburg String Quartet
Mark Olduvai: electric guitar (track 1 and 8)

Recorded and produced at Nina Studio (Paris), December 2022 - January 2023

Artwork: Christian Wittman.

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