Belle Chen announces brand new record 'Ravel In The Forest'
11 August 2023
Newsdesk
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Pianist and composer Belle Chen today announces her brand new record Ravel In The Forest - out February 16th 2024 on Platoon. Born from a need to find space and peace within nature - Belle set about to create an imaginative world the only way she knew how - through music.
The first single ‘My Deers’ is a refreshing foray that lures listeners into the colourful and whimsical world that Belle builds with Ravel In The Forest.
“I've kept things impressionistic – with space for the listener to fill in the narrative,” the Australian Music Prize nominee explains, “the most important aspect of this record is the listener, and how his, her, or their own imagination enables them to find that wonderful, inquisitive forest from within.”
Listening through the album is like a journey: we're accompanied by birds, a chameleon, a dragonfly – the wonder of the natural world is imbued into this imaginary space. For although Belle has taken inspiration from her own forays in the forest – beginning with a yellow carabeen tree in Queensland, Australia – her distinctive music is not intended to be a straight-forward representation. Taking cues from a breeze in the leaves, Chen fills her canvas with soft melodies and sympathetic synths.
Moments of tribute and acknowledgement to French Impressionist composer Maurice Ravel are dotted throughout the album, with short melodic motifs appearing and disappearing in the fantasy-filled ‘Kingdom Animalia’ and the lilting ‘And It Rains’.
'Ravel' could also be read as 'ravel' – a hint at the music's continual growth; a subtle development like the balling of wool. There is a counterpoint too – the unravelling – heard in the fast-paced ‘The Dragonfly’ and ‘My Deers’. Here is a strong visual representation of the titular creatures moving through the forest: we follow, taking in the world from their point of view, propelled by the energetic backdrop. While there is a definite hum of wings in ‘The Dragonfly’, the piece leaves room for the listener to find their own imagery – unlike Rimsky-Korsakov's iconic 1900 piece Flight of the Bumblebee, with its frenetic buzzing phrases, Chen shows rather than tells.
The album was mixed at Platoon’s state-of-the-art mixing studio by Dougal Lott, mastered by Dave Darlington at Bass Hit Studios in New York City, and includes a compelling spatial audio mix by Stan Kybert of Music Immersive. Belle’s diverse and intriguing approach to creating music is self-evident through this record, which includes the Budapest Art Orchestra in the shimmering ‘Closer’ and atmospheric ‘Moonrise.’
Ravel In The Forest is a record that easily defies categorization, with a collection of works that evokes and will connect with the audience in a multitude of ways.
It's a refresher we all need from time to time: Ravel In The Forest is there to help us reconnect with nature, music – and ourselves.
