Despite the composition’s initial context as soundtrack for a theatre play, this album is seen as a standalone work, whose complex sonic material can be appreciated without having seen the piece.
One of our biggest inspirations were Michael Wolf’s photographs, which served as the basis for the original theatre piece. His use of grey and repetition is translated into looped harmonies and fine-grained drones that progressively open up like blooming ice flowers.
Resulting from an arduous improvisational process using old samplers with elements such as the Beam harp, a self-made metal instrument with piano strings, reel-to-reel tape recorders, field recordings and violin, babel perfectly captures the oxymoron of the man-made concrete jungle that is at once inhospitable yet endlessly awe-inducing.