Alice Hebborn’s debut album is an immersion in nature starting in spring. It’s a counter-seasonal release, but no less welcome for it. However, it offers more than an uplifting soundtrack to buds and blossom. Hebborn’s instrumental compositions use a piano alongside an electronic soundscape, representing the human presence in the natural world. Saisons is influenced by the work of the American eco-feminist writer Starhawk on reconnecting humanity with the Earth on an equal basis, treating it as a living entity.
Born in Brussels, Hebborn is a composer with a track record of writing for theatre and ensembles. After the pandemic she moved out of the city, and Saisons has its origins in her newly-found, more personal relationship to the countryside. The album has seven movements which take us on a classically-influenced journey. The layered electronic sounds are detached from their origins, like an unmoored chamber orchestra floating in space. Over the top, Hebborn’s collaborator Nao Momitani plays a sometimes serene, sometimes frantic piano. The pieces often return to a succession of cascading arpeggios which are jaunty and uplifting in ‘Mouvement 1’, fragmented in ‘Mouvement 2’, cautious in ‘Mouvement 5’, insistent in ‘Mouvement 6’. They are reminiscent of the repeated figures in Koyaanisqatsi by Philip Glass, which expressed a similarly global environmental concept.
The album is a meditative piece of music, but that does not mean it is low key throughout. There are big tunes, for example on ‘Mouvement 2’ where Momani cheerfully hammers out the catchy signature motif as though soundtracking drone footage of migrating wildebeest. Within the palette she has chosen, Hebborn wears her emotions on her sleeve. ‘Mouvement 3’, for example, features rolling, pounding timps, which are threatening one moment, reassuring the next, as the delicate ecosystem balance constantly tips one way or another. The album’s world is unsettled, but with the potential for unity, rebalancing and renewed purpose. It could hardly be current, but its optimism is a pleasant surprise. The growing disturbance of ‘Mouvement 6’, with a piano which sounds as though it’s haranguing us, falls away and a river starts to flow. The final track, ‘Mouvement 7’, is full of variations and new sounds, but there is an underlying sense of calm.
Saisons was performed live before it was recorded, and has the feeling of a concert. It offers an immersive experience which lulls the listener in and holds them there. It has the fluid expressiveness of a very confident improvisation. Momitani and Hebborn work beautifully together, with a very high degree of professionalism which they have deployed to release rather than contain their creativity. The album is an accomplished and sophisticated work, which gives up more on every listen.
