Ariel Kalma, Jeremiah Chiu, and Marta Sofia Honer : The Closest Thing To Silence

The best instrumental music takes you out of what you perceive to be your world and opens doors to new ones. It brings the curtain down on reality so that you can expand your mental and emotional horizons. Instrumental music doesn’t need words to guide you somewhere, as the composition built from instruments is the only portal you need to find your mind floating and your mind’s eye seeing landscapes, worlds, visions, and ideas floating ahead like low hanging clouds. With the right kind of instrumental music, words are merely narration that gets in the way of a real, personal, and visceral connection. Be it Jazz, EDM, Komische, Downtempo, World, Ambient, New Age, or experimental music, instrumental music opens doors to new worlds and lets you color them in with your imagination.

The Closest Thing To Silence is a collaboration between Ariel Kalma, Jeremiah Chiu, and Marta Sofia Honer. What began as a collaborative coming together between fourth- world music legend Ariel Kalma and International Anthem artists Jeremiah Chiu and Marta Sofia Honer for the BBC Radio 3’s program Late Junction, turned into a full blown LP of forward-thinking instrumental music. After finishing their 20 minutes of music for the program, the three musicians/composers felt they still had more to work to do, so the result is the heady, vibrant, and mysterious The Closest Thing To Silence.

Jeremiah Chiu’s excellent In Electric Time(released via International Anthem) was one of my favorite albums of 2023. Going to the analog synthesizer museum in L.A., Chiu improvised on a room full of ancient noise boxes – most of which he learned to use on the spot – and within 20 minutes he’d composed his first song. It was a stunning display of musical composition and auditory improvisation, while also being music that was engaging, emotional, and carried with it an connective arc. Bringing his electronic music heft to this collaborative affair, along with the genius of Ariel Kalma and Marta Sofia Honer, this album was going to be epic in every way.

The 11 tracks that make up The Closest Thing To Silence range from avante classical to ambient to heady electronic to world music. Some combine all of those, like on “Écoute Au Loin”, which runs through everything from lilting strings, tribal percussion, and ethereal electronics bringing to mind composers like Cristobal Tapia De Veer and Colin Stetson. Album opener “Ten Hour Wave” opens on almost sultry saxophone before a wave of electronics roll in. I imagine Blade Runner, but with more of a 40s noir sound to it thanks to the reedy horn squall. “Breathing In Three Orbits” has a dream-like feel to it, effervescent noise hanging in the air like ghosts reaching through the void.

Elsewhere title track “The Closest Thing To Silence” brings to mind the stoned, psychedelic new age of Oneohtrix Point Never, while “Dizzy Ditty” keeps the electronic vibes going with an almost Cluster-like composition. It’s a coming together of 70s Berlin School and 80s world music in a way you’ve likely never heard before(I know I haven’t.) Album closer “Stack Attack” starts as if the tape is running backwards but builds in momentum with a pulse-like tone. The song ends on lilting strings and subtle electronics, bringing this whole affair to a brilliant end.

The Closest Thing To Silence is a stunning work of forward-thinking instrumental music. It does what the best instrumental music does, it opens your head and heart and carries you gently into its world. And that world is glorious.