Deborah Martin & Jill Haley: Into the Quiet
Spotted Peccary Music
The Silence of Grace, the first collaboration between oboist Jill Haley and ambient shaman Deborah Martin, was so critically well-received upon its 2021 release, a follow-up was inevitable, and here it is. Immersive in the extreme, Into The Quiet invites the listener into perhaps an even more absorbing realm than its predecessor, the music a portal through which one enters with no resistance whatsoever. For the creators, the titular “quiet” refers to the inner place one enters to achieve the most authentic possible connection with oneself. The challenge for Haley and Martin has to do with evoking a state of stillness in a medium that's by its very nature unfolding in time. Even so, the eight meditations approximate that state in presenting vivid sound realms characterized by serenity and calm.
The material is anything but minimal when the two assemble Haley's oboe, English horn, concert flute, and percussion and Martin's synthesizers and electronic gear into dense tone paintings. In the opening “Sleeping Giants,” for example, oceanic synthetic washes ebb and flow while flute and English horn coil around one another like snakes, the musical result rapturous and the sound design seductive. Bolstering the density of the material, a typical piece sees Haley layering multiple woodwinds, a strategy that makes the music feel as if it's slowly blossoming. Subtle touches enhance the arrangements also; consider, by way of illustration, how much the intermittent tinkle of a glockenspiel accent adds to the stream of woodwinds and organ flowing through “Falling Away From the Earth.”
Each setting fleshes out its spellbinding sound world for four to six minutes and then retreats peacefully, with only the title track nudging past eight minutes. Many a piece plays like a state of starry-eyed wonder rendered into slow-burning musical form. In one, swirls of softly breathing synth textures form a warm foundation for Haley's extemporizations, in another the elements organize themselves into a colour-saturated design as intricate as a mandala. Whereas most of the pieces exude rapture, a sense of melancholy permeates “Refuge” in the supplicating woodwind figures that repeatedly surface. Particularly pretty is “Elements” for locating harp and English horn within a gently shimmering rainforest.
Martin's clearly found a kindred spirit in Haley. She's an accomplished symphonic orchestra player but also someone who travels throughout the country visiting parks (sometimes as an Artist-in-Residence) and composing music during her stays. The deep connection she's forged with nature clearly enables her to enter into the meditative partnership she's created with Martin. Given that, the expectation naturally forms that Into the Quiet won't be the final co-release from the two.August 2023