The Belgian Ben Bertrand actually comes from classical music. But for his new album »Manes« he combines the already versatile sounds of his bass clarinet with all kinds of electronic accessories and effect pedals to create organic and soft atmospheric sound layers and cinematic moods. The slowly developing and meandering dense compositions, which are inspired by Steve Reich, Gavin Bryars and Terry Riley, sound warm and minimal. The five hypnotic tracks are all far away from cheesy New Age music, always in the field of tension between ambient, minimalism, jazz and modern classical music. Ben Bertrand plays calm melody arcs to synthetic textures and sound surfaces, loops and arpeggios, but also combines them with echo and reverb effects to create loop-like layers with the bass clarinet, over which he can then lay further instrumental tracks. For »Manes«, Ben Bertrand worked together with the Brussels sound engineer Christophe Albertijn and Claire Vailler from the duo Midget!, whose ethereal singing congenially supports the clarinet melody runs in the final track »The Manmaipo«.
Manes
