The name Pierre-Yves Martel we have encountered before, mostly working with others, such as being part of the duo Sainct Laurens (Vital Weekly 970), the quartet Quartetski (Vital Weekly 929) and various more impromptu improvisations with Carl Ludwig Hübsch and Philip Zoubek (Vital Weekly 890), Martin Tetreault and Philippe Lauzier (Vital Weekly 812). This might very well the first time I review a solo recording of his and I am not sure if this is a live recording or not. I must admit it does sound like one, captured in a place with some natural reverb; perhaps a church or a chapel. This is music with much silence between the notes. Martel plays here viola da gamba soprano and harmonica and plays a few notes on either instrument and then remains quiet for a couple of seconds. Judging by hearing this, these moments of silence are not perfectly timed, nor are the amount of notes fixed in each of the bits that actually is the music (of course, of course, I know, silence is a rhythm too). Sometimes they are a bit longer and sometimes quite short, but they are never under a few seconds anyway. It makes listening to this quite a radical experience, not one that can easily does while engaging in something else. This is something that requires one’s full attention I would think and only then it works quite well. I was distracted by the phone half way through for a short while and then found myself starting all over again, to soak up the true spirit of the piece. Not the easiest music around but one with quite some beauty hidden in both music and the silence that surrounds it; or vice versa of course.