The pandemic and the necessity of social distancing have created specific creative situations in the past years and many interesting musical projects and collaborations have been seen the light of the day since. By far the most interesting result of distanced collaboration is the new album by Mia Zabelka and Glen Hall with the at first sight strange title The Quantum Violin. Is this just another odd metaphorical projection of quantum physics onto another field, in this case music?

If one listens to the album from the beginning to the end, there can be no doubt that this music is much more than an illustration of quantum theory or better something completely different. We listen to dense, constantly floating, often spatialized textures of granulated sounds creating an immersive listening experience. Glen Hall uses a quantum oscillator, a Max for Live device using formulas of quantum theory to generate granulated sounds via additive synthesis. These textures are the backbone of all the pieces of the album. This sonic quantum world Mia Zabelka enters with her corporeal, gestural violin playing, which is as always recognizable as uniquely her own, even if the violin sound is sometimes heavily processed by electronic devices created by IRCAM.

But this is exactly one of the most fascinating aspects of the album, that it is genuinely electronic music, even generative music to some extent, but music making as a corporeal practice is present throughout. Sometimes the noise violin breaks through the quantum textures like a volcano, sometimes the violin sound is granulated and spatialized to an extent that it is barely recognizable, but it is always there.

All 14 pieces on the album are characterized by this tension between the generative textures of the electronic sounds and the gestures of the violin playing. Because of this tension the music can also get very emotional, especially toward the end of the album with the brutal violin attacks in pieces 12 and 13, but also with the last piece, which is mourning the late Pauline Oliveros. It is called “a sonic summation of the studies” and in this sense it would kind of a closure of the album. On the other hand the installation piece For Pauline Oliveros, which has been restructured by Glen Hall for the album “delivers the opposite of closure”, as Mia Zabelka has written in the liner notes for the installation. By the heart-warming, ethereal beauty of this homage to Pauline Oliveros yet another unresolved tension is created at the end of the album, a tension that motivates the listener to return to the album again and again.

The Quantum Violin was composed and played by Mia Zabelka and Glen Hall and mastered by Lasse Marhaug. It is available at Mia Zabelka’s bandcamp as download and CD.