Narc. Magazine Online
Reliably informed
Mark Corcoran-Lettice discovers eloquent arrangements and spontaneous-sounding melodies on the composer and multi-instrumentalist’s new album
Gizeh Records
Released: 09.04.21
If ambient music had seemed an ill-fitting tag for the work of composer and multi-instrumentalist Christine Ott before, Time To Die explodes that notion entirely: this is music far too suffused with totemic dread and stark revelation to exist on some background listening playlist.
The combination of Ondes Martenot and synthesisers on the title track makes for an especially stormy introduction, but even when Ott returns to the piano on Landscape (which also boasts her wordless, captivating singing), the sense of finality and of passing through a point without return lingers. While this could make Time To Die sound like heavy work, Ott’s clever, spontaneous-sounding melodies and talent for spacious, eloquent arrangements ensures that a sense of beauty always remains.
