Leila Bordreuil & Kali Malone – Music for Intersecting Planes
This new collaboration between Leila Bordreuil & Kali Malone hints at both of their sublime solo work, but never quite finds a character for itself
The work of composers Leila Bordreuil and Kali Malone, despite their differing instruments, are linked by a preoccupation with space and a desire to allow pieces to slowly unfurl at their own pace. As such, sticking them in the sacred space of the Temple Saint-Théodule La Tour-de-Peilz in Switzerland feels a bit like a tap-in. It’s a room that suits them, and there’s clear chemistry between the two; they have brilliantly complementary tones, at their best fusing into a sickly acrid fog that belies the record’s nocturnal candlelit recording session.
These kinds of collaborations can often overstuff themselves, but here the opposite happens. The duo work on each other like white spirit, stripping each other’s respective sounds down to their absolute essentials. It works, but only to an extent. The restraint means that when the flashes of movement and colour come, as on the gorgeously heaving back half of Pilots in the Night, it feels totally immediate and gripping. But there are sections of the album that feel a touch flat-footed, like they’re unsure where to turn.
This is not to complain of stillness, Malone in particular has a track record of imbuing the glacial with real ecstatic weight, but the stillness here is too often unusually characterless for the pair. It leaves the record feeling like a minor one in both artists’ discographies, a collection of glimpses into what makes both great without really being forged into anything captivating in and of itself.
Listen to: Pilots in the Night, Endless Dance of Eternal Joy