Music Reviews from the Staff of the Poison Pie Publishing House

 

December 1, 2024
Promise of Faithfulness - Ornella Noulet
Label: Relative Pitch Records
Catalog #: RPRSS035
Location: New York, United States
Release Date: November 29, 2024
Media: compact disc or digital download
bandcamp.com entry
discogs.com entry

 

The title of the debut solo release by Ornella Noulet, Promise of Faithfulness, is intended as a tribute to the last words of Albert Camus's acceptance speech of the Nobel Prize:

It remains for me to thank you from the bottom of my heart and to make before you publicly, as a personal sign of my gratitude, the same and ancient promise of faithfulness which every true artist repeats to him/herself in silence every day.
The full text of the speech is archived here.

This passage provides the listener with a point of entry into the abstract, instrumental music of Ornella Noulet on Promise of Faithfulness. For example, on the track, Spirit of Gratitude, there is a wistful sound to the saxophone and bells. It is a public bearing of the heart, in which a personal voice emerges, sharing a song crafted through the disciplined hours of solitary practice. The listener can share in the gratefulness that all the conflicting elements in a chaotic world came together momentarily to allow this music to be made.

Here at the Poison Pie Publishing House, the staff are fond of another Camus quote, delivered four days later at a lecture titled "Create Dangerously" on December 14, 1957 at the University of Uppsala in Sweden.

Contrary to the current presumption, if there is any man who has no right to solitude, it is the artist. Art cannot be a monologue. When the most solitary and least famous artist appeals to posterity, he is merely reaffirming his fundamental vocation. Considering a dialogue with deaf or inattentive contemporaries to be impossible, he appeals to a more far-reaching dialogue with the generations to come. But in order to speak about all and to all, one has to speak of what all know and of the reality common to us all. The sea, rains, necessity, desire, the struggle against death--these are the things that unite us all. We resemble one another in what we see together, in what we suffer together. Dreams change from individual to individual, but the reality of the world is common to us all.

If a reader suggests that we at the PPPH are fond of this quote because we work our craft in obscurity, they are only half right, and the lesser half at that. In fact, we find a vicarious pleasure in the Relative Pitch Records Solo Series, where other artists take the stage to showcase their voices with no motive other than unfettered expression. The desire to share one's creativity is a universal experience of all human beings, artists at the forefront, acting as role models to everyone else touched by their music.

Finally, we come to the crux of the matter. By invoking Camus, a father of existentialism, Noulet invokes the philosophy itself. We think of existence as intrinsically devoid of meaning. Each individual imbues their own life with a purpose of their choosing. The daily challenge then in life is to hold to the principles that one has set for oneself. Camus' promise of faithfulness is to continually strive toward those values that he set for himself. In adopting this language, Ornella Noulet casts her own artistry in this light and it is not hard to hear the sentiment reflected in her uncompromising music.

personnel:

  • Ornella Noulet (alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, bells) (social media)

 

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