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Reviews

Isabelle Olivier — Impressions
(Rewound Echoes REW 250079, 2025, CD)

by Jon Davis, Published 2025-04-06

Impressions Cover art

I first encountered harpist Isabelle Olivier with her 2019 collaboration with Rez Abbasi called Oasis. On Impressions, Olivier’s harp is featured in a variety of settings, mostly acoustic, with strings, accordion, piano, and percussion. The sixteen tracks bring together elements of 20th Century chamber music, jazz, and what I think of as European cafe music with touches of experimentalism in a very pleasant way. Harsh, dissonant sounds are not present — and would be unexpected from a harp without electronic modification — but the music is not lacking in intensity, albeit a generally quiet kind of intensity. A track like “Wrong Colors” includes eerie glissandos on violin with ominous low harp notes and sporadic percussion in a very free-sounding melange, then “Tango” settles us down with an adaptation of the traditional form with an emotive accordion, but the piece is interrupted by chaotic interjections from the strings. “Open a Window” shows a different aspect of Olivier’s vision, being a piece for solo harp with gentle electronic treatments that produce atmospheric echoes and reverberation. Its effect is quite meditative. Impressions may not be the kind of album that grabs your attention on the first listen, but its sophisticated charms do work into the brain and present a fascinating take on modern harp music.

Filed under: New releases, 2025 releases

Related artist(s): Isabelle Olivier

 

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