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"This name might not be very well-known but Julien Ottavi played with people like Keith Rowe, Jerome Noetinger, Erik M and others. He is a computer (read: laptop) musician from Nantes, France and this Sigma release is his first solo CD. Due to it sheer length - over 72 minutes - and the sheer volume - mostly very loud, sometimes very soft - it's not an easy release to digest. The first of the two untitled pieces open up in a nice drone like manner, but after some ten minutes things explode and Ottavi starts working the volumes up to an intense level. This lasts then for quite some time, but when it collapses it is really quiet for a while. If you have turned down the volume in the very loud bit, you won't hear a thing for some time, but beautiful drone music is hidden there. The second piece is even more beyond the level of audibility, with very soft sine wave tones (somewhere at minus thirty DB) but after twelve minutes it sounds very abruptly at plus thirty DB - a true shock tactic, leaving the listener unsure where to put the volume dial (best is to keep your hand attached to the volume while listening to this). As abruptly as it started, so it stops to continue at a nicer level with crackles. Both pieces are extreme plays with the notion of silence and noise and Ottavi does this quite well. My main objection is that he needs a little too much time to tell his story and that maybe one piece would have been enough. My pick would be the second piece, which is the better worked out one of the two, offering the most varied sound palette." * Frans de Waard [Vital Weekly 387]
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