Not static in time or place, the music of House of Mirrors evokes a medieval maze twisting through a myriad of tones and timbres, multiplied, fragmented, and re-sequenced like some devil’s DNA. Peter Van Huffel and Sophie Tassignon’s creations move through the nexus of centuries-old traditions and spur-of-the-moment impulse. Their music is about the world around us and the world within – refracted and reflected. Outside, the leaves in “Blätter” flutter and point – as if warning of a predator’s stealthy arrival – presaging a stillness that is both peaceful and breathtaking. Within, there’s jazz, there’s the 20th century chamber music of Schoenberg and Webern, and the contrapuntal free improv of Bailey, Parker, and von Schlippenbach. The old stones in this garden speak of long-lost Eastern European folk tunes, the Weimar cabaret of Weill and Brecht, and of the tales of a forest canopy and the burrowing creatures beneath.
What’s out front with that saxophone, that clarinet, that endless flow of ideas that is Peter Van Huffel is the unforgettable voice of Sophie Tassignon: a classically pure crystalline voice that belches bile and fire, turns from banshee to ingenue, turns from mother to child, or just turns to tell us fascinating stories in whatever language you might speak…
– Dave Wayne (Santa Fe, NM, USA)
