Nabelóse is the duo of Viennese hyper-pianist and vocalist Ingrid Schmoliner and Greek-Austrian, Berlin-based French horn player and vocalist Elena Kakaliagou, founded in February 2016 during Schmoliner and Kakaliagou’s artist residence at artacts in Tyrol. Nabelóse aesthetics are influenced by Alpine and Greek folk music, moulded into genre-binding song-like compositions, using extended percussive and breathing techniques on the prepared piano, French horn, and voice.
Haar is the third album by Nabelóse, recorded at Ocean Sound Studios in Giske, Norway, and features a poetic and enigmatic song-like cycle of rare beauty. The opening piece, «Niriides», revolves around Schmoliner’s stubborn, repetitive, and cyclical church-bell-like piano sounds, while Kakaliagou gently recites the list of the ancient fifty Greek goddesses, taken from Homer’s Iliad. The following piece, «Perfume», begins with the ethereal sounds of Kakaliagou’s horn, contested by Schmoliner’s minimalist yet dramatic prepared piano. Both Schmoliner and Kakaliagou sketch a mysterious, wordless yet poetic, hypnotic, vulnerable texture, ornamented by the subtle electronics of Turkish, Berlin-based Bilgehan Öziş, who mixed the album (and plays with Kakaliagou in the Offseeds quartet).
The short «Hinter Meinen Dünen» (Behind My Dunes) features Schmoliner and Kakaliagou whispering and reciting poetic texts in German and Greek, before their manipulated, multiplied voices gravitate into a distant, delicate drone. The following short piece, «Blue Mountains», features Kakaliagou chanting a Greek text into her horn bell with a robotic, fierce voice, creating an otherworldly metallic sound, while Schmoliner adds a dramatic, minimalist pulse on the prepared piano.
The album concludes with the mournful and introspective invocation, «To Ke» (To you in Greek), delivered by Kakaliagou’s reverent, hymn-like heavenly voice and ethereal horn, Schmoliner’s overtone singing in an imaginary language, and Belgian, Berlin-based vibes player Els Vanderwyer, who adds deeper resonance to the sustained tones. Such a meditative, touching invocation can summon powerful, uncommon forces that, hopefully, may turn the course of our planet toward a better future.
Eyal Hareuveni
Ingrid Schmoliner (prepared piano, voice), Elena Kakaliagou (French horn, voice), Els Vandeweyer (vibraphone), Bilgehan Öziş (electronics)
