Here at OBLADADA, we didn’t personally know Catherine Crister Hennix, nor possess the intelligence to understand her work as a mathematician. But Hennix, who sadly left the planet yesterday, gifted us a musical legacy that, whilst relatively small in quantity, is amongst the most mind blowing we’ve ever had the joy to know.
Her work straddled the miraculous fact that certain, very exacting sounds plucked from the universe emit some sort of ecstatic truth. Sounds treated in a way that drew ideas of duration and tuning that quickly deal in an aural kind of golden section. Hard science that shape-shifted into the profound, at times approaching deeply spiritual human music, as much as humbling sonic models of the infinite.
Only a few months ago, we reviewed her jaw dropping Solo for Tamburium, an album that still often loops with our Scottish autumnal days. Whilst this news is hard to take, it’s also incredibly fitting that this vast piece that somehow gathering the entire galaxy, is when the point her journey finally trails off into elsewhere…
Blues Alif Lam Mim In the Mode of Rag Infinity/Rag Cosmosis plays here this morning as I write, and for the first time, it’s soaring magnificence has tiny sparkles of momentary sadness. Selected Early Keyboard Works and Selections from 100 Models of Hegikan Roku will all effortlessly float in the air here in the coming days.
From a personal perspective, I learned of the news of her passing via a friend’s post online, the image was of Hennix in Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, a city she called home in the last part of her life. She had found her answers in Islam. This reminded me of a strange but beautiful experience I had whilst there a few years earlier. There are four huge circular medallions hanging within the main dome, all with beautiful gold calligraphy. In the absolute awe of the experience, these discs almost felt like speakers beaming out a somehow indescribable but beautifully powerful sound.
Thinking back to that moment today made me realise that much of Hennix’s work somehow approximated the sound I imagined…
It’s sad that she’s gone, but the music she leaves behind all feels like enough to comfortably last us all forever.
Catherine Crister Hennix (1948 – 2023)
(Photo Credit: Munch Museet)
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