La valle des cloches

Momo Kodamas first ECM New Series album is a marvel, a mesmerizing journey from the shimmering surfaces of Miroirs, Ravels piano cycle of 1904-45 to Messiaens Fauvette des jardins (written in 1970), a late masterpiece of piano music from the visionary composer.

Kodamas insights into Messiaens sound-world are remarkable as she conveys his religious feeling for nature, birdsong transformed into spiritual utterance, through the compelling, insistent piano figures. Linking the two pieces like a walkway is Toru Takemitsus Rain Tree Sketch (1982), music from the East informed by Western experiment.

Its opening bars writes Hans-Klaus Jungheinrich in the liner notes, evoke not only the rapturous crystalline chord progressions of Messiaen, but also the flashing, glittering sophistication of Ravel.