French electroacoustic composer
Michel Redolfi (France, 1951) specialized in "underwater music"
starting with
his project "WET" ("Water Electronically Tuned") of 1979,
funded by UC San Diego.
He came up with the idea of reimagining the sounds of the bottom of the ocean
with
performing underwater with custom-designed electronic keyboards.
He played a Synclavier I, an early digital synthesizer on
Immersion / Pacific Tubular Waves (1980), which contains
the five-movement Pacific Tubular Waves (recreating the feeling of the waves) and the four-movement Immersion (which recreates the effect of listening to music underwater).
Sonic Waters (1984) collects
Music For Fresh Water I II III IV (23:55), composed in 1981,
Music For Salt Water I II III IV (23:40), which would be completed in 1987,
Sunny Afternoon At Bird Rock Beach (23:35) and
Underwater Concerts Live Recordings (23:00).
Abandoning underwater sounds for a time,
Desert Tracks (1988) contains the four-movement Desert Tracks (35:35), obtained by manipulating sounds recorded
in places like the Mojave Desert and Death Valley.
It also includes Pacific Tubular Waves (24:56)
and Too Much Sky,
an excerpt from a "sleep-in" concert of 1984.
Sonic Waters #2 (1989) collects "underwater" compositions of 1983-89:
Effractions (9:40),
Sunny Afternoon At Bird Rock Beach (13:10) and
especially Full Scale Ocean (32:17).
Jungle (1991) is music for a fresco painted by French painter Herve' Di Rosa.
Appel D'Air (1993) contains the
seven-part Appel D'Air,
the eleven-part Jazz d'Apres Matisse
and the four-part Portrait De Jean-Paul Celea Avec Contrebasse.
After the impressionistic vignettes of Jungles (1997), Redolfi
composed an underwater opera in ten movements,
Crysallis (1997), with vocals by Yumi Nara and percussion by Alex
Grillo. The album also contains
the six parts of
the sound installation
Liquid City - Zuiderbad.
Underwater Music (2002) collects eight multi-part compositions:
The Waves / Level 0,
First Immersion / Level - 1,
Sea Life / Level - 2,
Sea Exploration / Level - 3,
Voices Of The Deep / Level - 4,
Abyssal Wonders / Level - 5,
Mystery Of The Deep / Level - 6,
Colours Of Silence / Level - 7.
He then composed another opera, this time an "opera noir" based on texts by
Mexican poets Homero Arridjis and Jose' Gorostiza:
Vox In Vitro (2004), with
soprano Susan Belling and
Thomas Bloch on ondes Martenot and glass harmonica.
Sons-Frissons (2012) contains:
the 21-minute History Of Sound (2011), with Christoph Harbonnier on synthesizer;
the six-movement L'Ombre De La Meduse (2002) with
Fabrice DiFalco on vocals and
Thomas Bloch on ondes Martenot and glass harmonica;
the four Songes Drolatiques (1994) with three vocalists;
the 14-minute Sonic Immersion (2011) with flute and harp;
and the seven-minute La Galaxie Du Caiman (1990), excerpted from Carnets Amazoniens (1989-92) that samples Amazonian birds.
Music On Mars (2014) contains 18 songs and instrumentals including Ancient Ocean with Pierre Chaze on electric guitar and two lengthy pieces with vocals by Terry Riley: Blue Sunset Raga and The Descent.
Sonic Waters (2021) delivers the updated versions of
Music For Fresh Water and
Music For Salt Water.
Hardscore (1980) documents a collaboration with Andre' Jaume on bass clarinet and tenor saxophone.
