The See Within (CD review)

Echo Collective. 7K! 7K024CD.

By Karl W. Nehring

Readers who have followed Classical Candor for a while might remember the Brussels-based musicians Echo Collective from our review of their DG release 12 Conversations with Thilo Heinzmann, music composed by the late Jóhann Jóhannsson. They have had an interesting and varied career, performing in concert settings in support of  artists such as Jóhannsson and A Winged Victory For The Sullen. They have also lent their interpretative talents to releases by themselves and others and others in musical genres as diverse as alt.rock, synth-pop, and black metal. Classical music fans need not worry, however, because The See Within, which is Echo Collective’s first album comprising their own original material (one of their previous releases, for example, was their instrumental version of Radiohead’s Amnesiac). Although The See Within is clearly contemporary in outlook, is fits without too awkward a stretch into the Western “classical” chamber music tradition.

The music is scored for violin, viola, cello, harp and, in its first appearance on a commercially released album recording, the magnetic resonator piano (MRP). “All sounds are acoustic, and produced in real time,” explain Echo Collective co-founders Margaret Hermant (violin, harp) and Neil Leiter (viola). “No processing or post-production other than reverb. The acoustic element is Echo Collective’s identity. A natural sound.”

The MRP, of which only one currently exists (built by its inventor, Andrew MacPherson), is something else again. I listened to the CD several times and assumed that there must be some subtle electronic instrumentation involved, some sort of synthesizer or perhaps electronic processing of the sound produced by a piano and perhaps some other instruments, although overall most of the sounds seemed quite natural. Only later did I do a little investigation and learn that all the sounds on the recording were acoustic. What I thought were synthesized tones were produced acoustically by the MRP, in which powerful electromagnets fitted to an acoustic piano – “imagine the effect of a giant E-bow” suggests Hermant – and an extra pedal prolong the notes, creating the kind of sustain and crescendos that can be achieved with strings. The MRP preserves all the sounds and techniques of the acoustic piano, while expanding its range of sounds to include things such as infinite sustain, crescendos (including crescendos from silence), harmonics on each string, new timbres that can be shaped in real time, and subtle pitch bends. Leiter explains that “in contrast to the conventional (hammer-actuated) piano sound, the sounds of the MRP are pure and ethereal, emphasizing the fundamental frequency of each string over its high partials. We discovered the MRP about six months before recording the album. It allowed us to give piano and strings equal expression, and to present a unified acoustic sound, since any drone effect on a piano is usually reliant on electronics. It’s been fascinating to take a traditional instrument and set it free.”

The MRP is played by Gary De Cart, The See Within’s third composer alongside Hermant and Leiter, while the album’s fourth musician, cellist Charlotte Danhier, is credited with co-writing the title track. Both De Cart and Danhier are regular members of the fluctuating collective, but the core of the ensemble is its two founders.

The opening cut, “Inflection Point,” sounds like fairly straightforward chamber music, with some subtle use of the MRP, while the second cut, “The See Within,” begins to let us hear what the MRP is capable of, creating some interesting sustains in the lower strings of the piano as a foundation for the sounds of the violin and harp above.

In the third cut, “From Last Night’s Rain,” we hear chords on the piano in addition to some other occasional effects. However, I should not over-emphasize the MRP; in truth, it is an integrated part of a true chamber ensemble, and there is much more to this music than just the sound of this instrument, which I have focused on because of its unusual nature, not because it has in any way dominated the sound of the music. At least to my mind’s ear (or ear’s mind), cut 4, “The Witching Hour,” expresses longing mingled with apprehension. It is a focused and convincing piece of music.    

Cut 5, “Glitch,” opens with some unusual sounds that resemble the calls of dolphins. As the music progresses, the listener can perhaps imagine it being part of the soundtrack for some psychological thriller. The next piece, “Unknown Gates,” gives prominence to the harp with support from the MRP. It really does function as something of a gateway, bringing us to the major composition on the album, the 11-minute “Respire.” This truly is a remarkable piece of music, calling upon the sounds of the MRP, the cello, the violin, and the harp to evoke feelings of calm, joy, peace, and wonder. Listen, breathe, behold, be calm, be well. The final track, “First Brightening,” turns the energy level up a notch or two. After all, we must not be content to sit and be well, we must stand and do good, bringing about some brightening.

All in all, The See Within is a musical breath of fresh air blowing in from Brussels. Give this remarkable album an audition and be amazed, as was I, that all the sounds you hear are produced by acoustic instruments. I look eagerly forward to future releases by this remarkable ensemble, regardless of musical genre. Brava and bravo! 

KWN

Meet the Staff

Meet the Staff
John J. Puccio, Founder and Contributor

Understand, I'm just an everyday guy reacting to something I love. And I've been doing it for a very long time, my appreciation for classical music starting with the musical excerpts on the Big Jon and Sparkie radio show in the early Fifties and the purchase of my first recording, The 101 Strings Play the Classics, around 1956. In the late Sixties I began teaching high school English and Film Studies as well as becoming interested in hi-fi, my audio ambitions graduating me from a pair of AR-3 speakers to the Fulton J's recommended by The Stereophile's J. Gordon Holt. In the early Seventies, I began writing for a number of audio magazines, including Audio Excellence, Audio Forum, The Boston Audio Society Speaker, The American Record Guide, and from 1976 until 2008, The $ensible Sound, for which I served as Classical Music Editor.

Today, I'm retired from teaching and use a pair of bi-amped VMPS RM40s loudspeakers for my listening. In addition to writing for the Classical Candor blog, I served as the Movie Review Editor for the Web site Movie Metropolis (formerly DVDTown) from 1997-2013. Music and movies. Life couldn't be better.

Karl Nehring, Editor and Contributor

For more than 20 years I was the editor of The $ensible Sound magazine and a regular contributor to both its equipment and recordings review pages. I would not presume to present myself as some sort of expert on music, but I have a deep love for and appreciation of many types of music, "classical" especially, and have listened to thousands of recordings over the years, many of which still line the walls of my listening room (and occasionally spill onto the furniture and floor, much to the chagrin of my long-suffering wife). I have always taken the approach as a reviewer that what I am trying to do is simply to point out to readers that I have come across a recording that I have found of interest, a recording that I think they might appreciate my having pointed out to them. I suppose that sounds a bit simple-minded, but I know I appreciate reading reviews by others that do the same for me — point out recordings that they think I might enjoy.

For readers who might be wondering about what kind of system I am using to do my listening, I should probably point out that I do a LOT of music listening and employ a variety of means to do so in a variety of environments, as I would imagine many music lovers also do. Starting at the more grandiose end of the scale, the system in which I do my most serious listening comprises Marantz CD 6007 and Onkyo CD 7030 CD players, NAD C 658 streaming preamp/DAC, Legacy Audio PowerBloc2 amplifier, and a pair of Legacy Audio Focus SE loudspeakers. I occasionally do some listening through pair of Sennheiser 560S headphones. I miss the excellent ELS Studio sound system in our 2016 Acura RDX (now my wife's daily driver) on which I had ripped more than a hundred favorite CDs to the hard drive, so now when driving my 2022 Accord EX-L Hybrid I stream music from my phone through its adequate but not outstanding factory system. For more casual listening at home when I am not in my listening room, I often stream music through the phone into a Vizio soundbar system that has tolerably nice sound for such a diminutive physical presence. And finally, at the least grandiose end of the scale, I have an Ultimate Ears Wonderboom II Bluetooth speaker for those occasions where I am somewhere by myself without a sound system but in desperate need of a musical fix. I just can’t imagine life without music and I am humbly grateful for the technology that enables us to enjoy it in so many wonderful ways.

William (Bill) Heck, Webmaster and Contributor

Among my early childhood memories are those of listening to my mother playing records (some even 78 rpm ones!) of both classical music and jazz tunes. I suppose that her love of music was transmitted genetically, and my interest was sustained by years of playing in rock bands – until I realized that this was no way to make a living. The interest in classical music was rekindled in grad school when the university FM station serving as background music for studying happened to play the Brahms First Symphony. As the work came to an end, it struck me forcibly that this was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard, and from that point on, I never looked back. This revelation was to the detriment of my studies, as I subsequently spent way too much time simply listening, but music has remained a significant part of my life. These days, although I still can tell a trumpet from a bassoon and a quarter note from a treble clef, I have to admit that I remain a nonexpert. But I do love music in general and classical music in particular, and I enjoy sharing both information and opinions about it.

The audiophile bug bit about the same time that I returned to classical music. I’ve gone through plenty of equipment, brands from Audio Research to Yamaha, and the best of it has opened new audio insights. Along the way, I reviewed components, and occasionally recordings, for The $ensible Sound magazine. Most recently I’ve moved to my “ultimate system” consisting of a BlueSound Node streamer, an ancient Toshiba multi-format disk player serving as a CD transport, Legacy Wavelet II DAC/preamp/crossover, dual Legacy PowerBloc2 amps, and Legacy Signature SE speakers (biamped), all connected with decently made, no-frills cables. With the arrival of CD and higher resolution streaming, that is now the source for most of my listening.

Ryan Ross, Contributor

I started listening to and studying classical music in earnest nearly three decades ago. This interest grew naturally out of my training as a pianist. I am now a musicologist by profession, specializing in British and other symphonic music of the 19th and 20th centuries. My scholarly work has been published in major music journals, as well as in other outlets. Current research focuses include twentieth-century symphonic historiography, and the music of Jean Sibelius, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Malcolm Arnold.

I am honored to contribute writings to Classical Candor. In an age where the classical recording industry is being subjected to such profound pressures and changes, it is more important than ever for those of us steeped in this cultural tradition to continue to foster its love and exposure. I hope that my readers can find value, no matter how modest, in what I offer here.


Bryan Geyer, Technical Analyst

I initially embraced classical music in 1954 when I mistuned my car radio and heard the Heifetz recording of Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto. That inspired me to board the new "hi-fi" DIY bandwagon. In 1957 I joined one of the pioneer semiconductor makers and spent the next 32 years marketing transistors and microcircuits to military contractors. Home audio DIY projects remained a personal passion until 1989 when we created our own new photography equipment company. I later (2012) revived my interest in two channel audio when we "downsized" our life and determined that mini-monitors + paired subwoofers were a great way to mate fine music with the space constraints of condo living.

Visitors that view my technical papers on this site may wonder why they appear here, rather than on a site that features audio equipment reviews. My reason is that I tried the latter, and prefer to publish for people who actually want to listen to music; not to equipment. My focus is in describing what's technically beneficial to assure that the sound of the system will accurately replicate the source input signal (i. e. exhibit high accuracy) without inordinate cost and complexity. Conversely, most of the audiophiles of today strive to achieve sound that's euphonic, i.e. be personally satisfying. In essence, audiophiles seek sound that's consistent with their desire; the music is simply a test signal.

Mission Statement

It is the goal of Classical Candor to promote the enjoyment of classical music. Other forms of music come and go--minuets, waltzes, ragtime, blues, jazz, bebop, country-western, rock-'n'-roll, heavy metal, rap, and the rest--but classical music has been around for hundreds of years and will continue to be around for hundreds more. It's no accident that every major city in the world has one or more symphony orchestras.

When I was young, I heard it said that only intellectuals could appreciate classical music, that it required dedicated concentration to appreciate. Nonsense. I'm no intellectual, and I've always loved classical music. Anyone who's ever seen and enjoyed Disney's Fantasia or a Looney Tunes cartoon playing Rossini's William Tell Overture or Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 can attest to the power and joy of classical music, and that's just about everybody.

So, if Classical Candor can expand one's awareness of classical music and bring more joy to one's life, more power to it. It's done its job. --John J. Puccio

Contact Information

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"Their Master's Voice" by Michael Sowa

"Their Master's Voice" by Michael Sowa