Jeux d’eau is a result of an exploratory collaboration between us: Copenhagen Clarinet Choir and Anders Lauge Meldgaard, composer and performer on the New Ondomo & eurorack electronics.
From the very beginning, this project has been shaped by a shared curiosity and a mutual desire to explore the spaces between acoustic and electronic sound, structure and openness, clarity and mystery.
The music was developed over a series of workshops where ALM came with compositional ideas, sketches, and fragments to explore together with Copenhagen Clarinet Choir. These sessions were not only about rehearsing material, but about experimenting and listening to the group’s unique sound, to the subtleties of each player, and to how the clarinet choir naturally interacted. After each workshop, ALM would take notes, absorb what had emerged, and return with revised or expanded ideas. This iterative process allowed the music to evolve organically over time, shaped as much by the collective intuition of the ensemble as by the written score. This development continued right into the recording studio, and further still into the concerts performed together. The piece remains in motion – never fixed – adapting itself to new contexts and new moments of shared listening.
The initial inspiration for Jeux d’eau came during ALM’s visit to the gardens of Villa d’Este in Tivoli, Italy – a place animated by fountains that once inspired Franz Liszt and Maurice Ravel to compose piano works bearing the same title. Echoing these earlier musical impressions, Jeux d’eau was ignited by the same spark, now a distant glow that has set a new musical journey in motion. In this piece, the listener is invited into a sonic landscape where the organic resonance of the clarinet ensemble meets the unpredictable textures of the New Ondomo and electronics. The work unfolds through a series of fluid forms and open notations that call for real-time decision-making and sensitivity from all performers. The music is co-created in the moment, shaped collectively and intuitively.
Conceived as a tribute to water and a reflection on the fragile bond between humans and the natural world, Jeux d’eauis both a sonic meditation and a quiet call to action. Through fluid forms and open notations, the work draws listeners into a space where music mirrors the dynamics of nature—demanding real-time awareness, collective sensitivity, and respect for balance. Like flowing water, the music adapts and transforms, reminding us that our environment, too, is ever-changing and in need of care. In this way, Jeux d’eaudoes more than celebrate nature’s beauty: it asks us to recognize our responsibility to protect the living systems that sustain us, and to pay caring attention to the world we live in.
Jeux d’eauwill be released worldwide in digital formats on November 12, 2025, with vinyl editions available in Europe on År & Dag and in Japan via Tokyo based Conatala Records.