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Feu Follet & Miina Virtanen - The Icicle Lectures Volume 1 sold out! Cat.#.: EXO002 Price: 10,00 € Order via email to info@exovo.org (
Press info: The Icicle Lectures Vol. 1 is the first episode of a collaboration between Feu Follet mastermind and Ex Ovo co-founder Tobias Fischer and Finnish composer and pianist Miina Virtanen. Premiered live to great success in Dresden in February of 2007, it embraces elements from Classical Music, Ambient and contemporary composition in one continous, challenging, yet emotional piece. After his debut Toi Et Le Son (on Einzeleinheit) in January 2006 and an ankle-deep march through a mesmerising stream of foggy sounds Feu Follet has arrived at the frozen lake of 2007. The realisation of this album was one of those little miracles life sometimes hands us. In his sidejob,Fischer also writes for the house journal of a large call center located in Münster. It caught his eye that there was an ad in each each edition for CDs with piano music and he decided to check it out. Only a couple of months later The Icicle Lectures Vol. 1 (which bases on Virtanen’s ”Silence Thoughts II”) was a fact. The Icicle Lectures Vol. 1 sees Fischer combining the glacial drones of the predecessor with the warm radiating piano drops of Finnish discovery Miina Virtanen. The end result is an airy, hardly tangible composition of removal and recurrence. Like feathers falling down on an icy surface in slow motion. ”I’m glad that music like this exists!” - Eric Heyde/Balog
Reviews: “Looks like working in sub-human conditions brings nice side effects sometimes. While Tobias Fischer (aka Feu Follet) was intent in his writing job on the house journal of a huge German call center, he noticed repeated ads for piano music CDs. He checked them out and got in touch with Miina Virtanen, whose instrumental piece "Silence thoughts II" is at the basis of this collaboration, a very tranquil record featuring two tracks. In the first, played by Virtanen alone, an uncertain flute introduces pianistic phraseologies that border on the new ageish, very melodic and relaxing although not really saccharine-imbued (Tim Story is not too far away). The long suite that follows raises the bar quite a lot: fragments of Virtanen's playing get processed and looped to create a mixture of minimalist ambient and mantric reverberations and arpeggios, exploiting the natural resonance of the instrument. Without throwing La Monte Young and Terry Riley out of their bed, as this music's depth is not on par with those composers, the overtones caressing the air show respect for the audience. If you choose the right moments, this CD reveals a degree of seductive power with repeated listenings, its absence of emotional peaks notwithstanding. But you have to live in a silent place and avoid headphones, or it will make no sense at all.” Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes: www.touchingextremes.org “[...] contains a 34:00 title track which carries some overtones of Popol Vuh - quiet, simple piano figures and delicate, spectral dronework. Most absorbing.” Ed Pinsent, The Sound Projector. To read the full review: www.thesoundprojector.com “[...] Despite the title “The icicle lectures” and the icicles on the cover this music give you the feeling it's spring. Perhaps cold spring mornings with frozen flowers at your windows but certainly it is spring on this album, you can almost smell it, or am I just too much in the mood for spring? Remco, Gothtronic. To read the full review: www.gothtronic.com “[...] Virtanen's track starts out gentle and sparse, slowly building in emotion and intensity as it progresses. Largely composed of Virtanen's own music played on piano, "Silence Thoughts II" is a melancholic and expressive exploration of thoughts and feelings set to music. Sometimes quite gentle and heartfelt and at others impassioned and anxious, "Silence Thoughts II" builds in feeling as it slowly moves towards it close. Using Virtanen's track as the basis for his own composition, Fischer reinterprets the mood, feeling and emotion of her original piece and adds his own touches to augment and develop the concept. Taking elements of the original track, Fischer opens "The Icicle Lectures Vol. 1" with a gentle piano theme, almost like water dripping in an isolated pool. Sometimes adding electronic backing to Virtanen's playing to provide extra atmosphere and sometimes concentrating solely on electronic drones and sparse, almost non-existent tones, Fischer explores the ideas presented in the original track and expands on them in his own style. Often spacious, gentle and minimal, Fischer combines the gentlest of electronic tonal drones with excerpts of Virtanen's piano playing to create an emotive yet serene and atmospheric ambient piece that is beautiful, sad and calming at the same time. Occasionally exploring more psychedelic and hypnotic expression "The Icicle Lectures Vol. 1" is predominantly themed around ambience, mood and emotion with a sense of open spaces and freedom throughout. Always subtly changing, whether in tone, mood or style, "The Icicle Works Vol. 1", is a carefully crafted piece of ambient listening music. [...]” Paul Lloyd, Connexion Bizarre. To read the full review: www.connexionbizarre.net “[...] It opens with a piece by Virtanen, solo on the piano. Music of stillness. Romantic but not kitsch. Satie meets Feldman. That sort of thing. The longest piece, thirty four minutes, is a collaboration between Virtanen and Fischer, which is by far the strongest work Fischer made so far. Chilling electronics that play a highly modest role in the music, with just a refined bit of Virtanen's piano playing. A bit of reverb adds that extra ambience. I am strongly reminded of the two albums Brian Eno made with Harold Budd in his ambient series, 'The Plateaux Of Mirror' and 'The Pearl', but then captured in one long track. It's a great melancholic and atmospheric music, perfect for a late night listening session. Curious about the next volumes!” Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly #568. To read the full review: www.vitalweekly.net “[...] Overall, this is nice background / reading music. It doesn’t demand a lot of the listener and easily slides into the background.” Eskaton, Chain DLK. To read the full review: www.chaindlk.com “[...] The first song, Silence Thoughts II, is a song that was made in 2004 already. It's composed and performed by Miina alone, and for the biggest part is a piano solo. The intro is a bit strange though; for a minute and a half one hears somewhat avantgarde use of flutes, or so it seems. But then the piano solo starts, and one is simply overwhelmed. It's such a beautiful song, it's just too bad it lasts only for five minutes, not counting the intro. Tobias takes Silence Thoughts II, and transforms it to a 34 minute long piece of ambient. With the drones Tobias creates, this adaptation of the original tune gets a whole new depth. It becomes apparent why it's cold "Icicle" lectures; the drones are cold ones. Not distant or apathetic, but rather simply cool, just as ice and snow. It indeed pictures a happy cold winter day, a day long forgotten, when kids were skating on the ice and throwing snowballs at eachother. [...] The combination of the package with the music, as well as the two pieces of music together, shows that this is a release made with care. The result is a little diamond, waiting to be found.” Almar Veenstra, Heathen Harvest. To read the full review: www.heathenharvest.com “[...] Eine außergewöhnliche Kooperation, die die interessierte Konsumentenschaft mit "The Icicle Lectures - Vol. 1" hier präsentiert bekommt. Purer Wahnsinn zum Entspannen und Abschalten von dieser hektischen modernen Welt. Freunde von Tenhi sollten unbedingt eine Hörprobe auf der Webseite des Labels Ex Ovo nehmen und sich danach zum Kauf entscheiden. Absolute Kaufempfehlung - Pflichtkauf!” Raphael Feldmann, Feindesland. To read the full review: www.feindesland.de
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