Chronotope Project
Ovum
OVUM, the third released on Spotted Peccary Music and the seventh album by composer Jeffrey Ericsson Allen as Chronotope Project, poetically reflects on the nature of beginnings, seeds, and primordial states of being. As an archetypal symbol in art, literature and mythology, the ovum represents pure potentiality and possibility, the indwelling and self organized lan vital that gives rise to life in its manifold forms. The sonic resources behind OVUM include a wide range of hardware and software synthesizers, acoustic instruments and environmental soundscapes. True to the style of Chronotope Project, Berlin-style sequences periodically emerge to lend an incandescent undercurrent to the harmonic and melodic narratives that inform each piece. Ethereal synthesizer pads paint cloud-like harmonies with cirrus strokes, while tribal percussion sometimes appears in the texture to propel a piece to its climax. As with many of the composer's previous works, the expressive sound of the Haken Continuum Fingerboard is frequently featured as a solo instrument. A range of classical musical forms styles and procedures are employed to explore the central theme, including four-part chorale, minimalism, passacaglia, theme-and-variations and counterpoint.