Composed for abstract digital pre-record and live ensemble, French composer Lionel Marchetti’s Lac intérieur is perhaps best translated as The Interior Lake, given the piece’s introspective yet expansive quality – one brought out in this performance by Decibel, an ensemble consisting of Cat Hope (flute), Lindsay Vickery (bass clarinet), Tristan Parr (cello), Aaron Wyatt (viola and violin), Stuart James (recorded piano) and Louise Devenish (percussion).

The performers also use ocarinas, harmonicas, Tibetan prayer bowls, hand-held radios and other items.

Decibel performs Inland Lake. Photo © Edify Media

While in the genre of musique concrète – a form in which recorded noises are stretched and bent like plastic to become otherworldly textures – Decibel’s realisation is gentle, even meditative, compared to the work of, say, concrète artist Bernard Parmegiani. There is a rich, bass-driven depth at times, but the piece does not shock. Lac intérieur is closer to a complex, dirge-like ambient work than to the stochastic swishes, wipes and jagged blips of Parmegiani, and it progresses through accumulation and withdrawal rather than the busy sense...