Snowdrops celebrates musical freedom. Formed in 2015 by Christine Ott & Mathieu Gabry, the french chamber duo is driven by a deeply personal approach to composition, improvisation and orchestration. The pair draw from a unique combination of contemporary classical, jazz, electronic music and ambient, and spent the first few years of their partnership on various collaborations, from theater plays, AV shows to films scores.

Most notably, Snowdrops composed the acclaimed soundtrack to Phuttiphong Aroonpheng’s first feature Manta Ray, which won the Lion Award for Best Film at the 2018 Venice Festival (Orizzonti). The motion picture score was released by Gizeh Records in 2019.

Snowdrops signed to Injazero Records for the release of their graceful debut album Volutes on October 2020, an eloquent miniature symphony of strings, piano and Ondes Martenot.

Finding Inspiration

Christine Ott : My inspiration is clearly intuitive, the spontaneity of the moment, the relationship with musicians, instruments or spaces. It’s the music itself, spontaneous, visual, digital, and unconscious. By the way, there are undoubtedly unconscious inspirations; nature and cinema especially. 

Mathieu Gabry : But currently… it’s difficult to say. These difficult times take us away from many sources of inspiration. We put everything aside. And so we get attached in thoughts to what we love, to those we love, and we aspire to better days…

Gain & Loss

MG : Maybe a positive point at the end, is that this break gaves to Christine and me the opportunity to be more focused together on past recordings we did, to edit and mix it, and to prepare or imagine a few releases. I think we finalized “Volutes” during the first lockdown, as we found this connection with the label Injazero Records, House of C. Diab or Heinali…

CO : I also have a new solo album coming from this year, to be released on april 9th thru Gizeh. We also worked together with Mathieu on it, on this last strange year. And i worked with Benoit Burger for the mix and with Lawrence English for the mastering. But all recordings were done before, on a very large period, from 2012 to 2019 i guess…

Physical Stage

CO : I think we both have a conflicting relationship with the scene…

MG : Certainly it’s something we don’t really like because it’s an endangerment, but at the same time it is something that we adore because it is an endangerment… (laugh)

CO : As far as I’m concerned, I may have given a lot of concerts, whether in classical, or for ten years alongside Yann Tiersen, or on tour as a solo support act for Tindersticks.. or with Snowdrops.. there hasn’t been a time when I haven’t had stage fright. It’s a bit crazy. But anyway, when you’re on stage, and it’s gone, it’s ok !

MG : I see the Snowdrops concerts as laboratories open to the public. We invite you to enter, at least we try.. and often we experiment things on stage according to the places, the possibilities.. the public too…  The ‘Snowdrops sound’, if it exists, is based on this “playing together” experiment, at minima Christine and me, but sometimes with others like on “Volutes”, with viola player Anne-Irène Kempf. This is live music by the way ! “Volutes” is a kind of live recording, half-composed, half-improvised. But everything is played live, together. It gives to our sound a kind of humanity which is certainly important for us. Then on stage, we often try to find that kind of moments. Not for all the set, but a large part. Sometimes we stumble and it doesn’t work. But sometimes we are there, “in the zone”, and something magical, unique happens. It’s very precious. it’s a bit like Voodoo magic with a Nordic influence. (laugh) And this sometimes allows to certain pieces to crystallize, or other pieces to enrich themselves… I remember of an unreleased piece called “Lame de Fond” that we really love with Christine… We wrote it in 2015 maybe… We had a real structure in mind before, half-written, but the first time we played it on stage, at the small stage of the ‘Opéra de Lyon’, we went out of the structure during the show, rather consciously, half-improvised, and it gave this really powerful moment. But i have to say Christine is an incredible improviser ! She’s doing sometimes really crazy things on stage ! (laugh)