Rating: **** 4/5 Stars
Composer Alessandro Mastroianni’s Sonora Cinematic operation are known for their Dronar collections of complex evolving textures, pads and soundscapes. Poiesis Cello, the first title in the company’s new solo string series, expands the frontiers with a large set of atmospheric articulations beautifully performed by Alan Black, distinguished principal cellist with the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra. Mr Black’s instrument was originally commissioned and owned by Yo‑Yo Ma, so as you might expect, it sounds superb. The library is 4.92GB installed and runs on the free Kontakt Player (v6.5.3 and up), as well as the full version of Kontakt.
As everyone knows, the ancient Greek word ‘poiesis’ refers to the act of bringing something into being that didn’t exist before, and that’s certainly true of some articulations in this unconventional library. Rather than dutifully slogging through the usual menu of longs, shorts, plucks and tremolos, the player freely varies his bowing to produce timbral shifts and shadings, octave harmonics, bow bounces and reiterations, creating mobile textures which range from tender and reflective to nervily unsettling.
The main Textures patch contains 43 long, sustained articulations, any of which can be loaded into either of the patch’s ‘A’ and ‘B’ layers. You can create mobile, subtly evolving textures by using the mod wheel to crossfade between the two layers, with the added satisfaction of knowing the number of possible sound combinations is practically infinite.
In a less traditional vein are extended techniques such as the ‘behind the bridge’ bowing (which introduces classic horror‑film dissonances) and a mad circular bowing technique where the player continually changes the bowing point...
I was taken by the delicate flautando and sul tasto styles (the latter of which has a nice tremolo variant) and loved the dreamy harmonics. A set of ‘normale’ straight notes played with a restrained and graceful vibrato work well for melodies and pads, while an additional shorts patch contains spiccato, staccato and pizzicato (including Bartok snap) artics. There are also ‘motions’ note reiterations played in half‑, quarter‑, eighth‑ and 12th‑note divisions. All sustained styles have a muted con sordino option which you can crossfade with the unmuted version to great effect.
In a less traditional vein are extended techniques such as the ‘behind the bridge’ bowing (which introduces classic horror‑film dissonances) and a mad circular bowing technique where the player continually changes the bowing point to produce a constantly evolving, somewhat unnerving one‑man soundscape. More experimental ‘textural’ performances range from solemn, harmonium‑like drones to agitated and jittery rebowings. While the deliveries generally lack aggression (no Mad Max bombast here), the edgy sul ponticello performances are more imposing and threatening.
The cello was recorded over a C2‑C#5 range in a dry studio acoustic using three high‑end mics — each has its own mixer channel, with a hard‑panned stereo mix of the three also available. Unlike Sonora’s Dronar titles, these samples are unprocessed and effects are entirely created by the performer, thus offering composers an organic and intimate human touch suitable for sensitive drama and subtle psychological thriller scores.
£82.50
£82.50