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'Fountains' by Inès Cherifi
Inès Cherifi takes us into an aquatic, mineral parallel world. Voice and violin, her signature instrument, dance in the reverberations of a cave. Sometimes, the two come together to form a mutant elocution, accentuating the surreal aspect of the work. The artist plays with our senses: constantly on the lookout for these transformations and unions, we are immersed in listening.
Orchestral chords reflecting desolation and languor are a regular feature of 'Fountains', released on FAERIES RECORDS. The musician presents her vulnerabilities as the tracks progress, while gently building towards an explosive viscerality that deflects any preconceptions associated with the violin. The instrument reinforces the power of the languid emotions that are often linked to incomprehension and doubt. As for the chord loops, they hypnotize us into a state that brings us closer to the emotional protagonist, empathizing with her pain.
Words: Adé.
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'The Blue Hour' by Somewhere Press
For 'The Blue Hour', Scottish label Somewhere Press has brought together a dozen artists to reflect that fleeting moment of blue night when dusk inks the sky as it dies.
Françoise Hardy once sang that this in-between moment puts "like a veil of dream in front of the eyes". And in front of the other senses. It's at this moment of evanescent enchantment that the scent of flowers intensifies and birdsong bursts into life. The compilation’s ten tracks capture these signs by deploying nature sounds or floating, swirling, sometimes elusive voices around graceful pads. The atmospheric, uncertain sound forms evoke the cutting up of the deep blue sky by the contours of trees and buildings, while their silhouettes are dressed in an unfathomable obscurity that leaves room for any projection. In the stunning slow-motion finale "Call", Man Rei's delicate vocals precede a gentle breeze of synths that escort the sounds of dusk as it surrenders to the new night.
Words: Antoine.
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'Searchlight Moonbeam' by Efficient Space
Time is Away crafts the compilation ‘Searchlight Moonbeam‘ for Efficient Space. For ten years now, Elaine Tiernay and Jack Rollo have been weaving together narrative musical collages for NTS. It seems only natural that this approach now finds sincere expression in the curation of a new compilation.
Time is Away assembles a collection of rarities from completely different horizons, yet their juxtaposition creates a mysterious shared language, revealing a whole that is both very intimate and somehow universal. Penny Davenport's beautiful artwork accurately captures what the compilation is all about: a quiet territory of innocence and empathy, but full of oddities, like the warped insouciance extracted from ancient memories. This comp acts like a mosaic of worlds that, once assembled, form a new, gentler one.
Words: Antoine.
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'm•emo•topia' by Le Frit
In 'm-emo-topia', Yann Le Frit maps his emotions. He has even coined the term "memotape", which combines "biotape", a place with similar environmental conditions, and "memory". It's an amusing and ingenious way of launching a project inspired by flora, fauna and natural elements. Each of these tracks has its own ecosystem: wood, water bubbles, lotuses, crabs, and stalactites take pride of place, inspired by video games, baile funk and musique concrète.
For Human Pitch, he explores these palpable universes by drawing on his imagination and hijacking their representation. Like a synesthetic event.
Words: Adé.
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'Nosta' by Leon Evangelion & Virgile
Léon Evangelion and Virgile unveil ‘Nosta‘, a collection of seven hazy folk lullabies released on High Heal. The motto of the lovely label founded by Fetva is "gathering of soulmates to heal through music", and this collaborative album embraces it perfectly. ‘Nosta‘ for nostalgia, you might peacefully assert, as the tracks convey such a quiet feeling of serene sadness.
A spellbinding voice navigates the misty arpeggios of an acoustic guitar, laying out uncertainties and regrets. The introspection of the lyrics is suspended by invocations, by calls to the other whose distance feeds the melancholy. The vulnerable combination of guitar and voice is mingled with salient electronic inflections and additions whose asperities and grace suggest the torment that leads to healing. These gateway events warp the seven songs, sublimating them, when the familiarity of the organic and the acoustic is discreetly filled with an additional magic that sometimes ends up absorbing everything.
Words: Antoine.
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'Sky Flesh' by Marta de Pascalis
"Sky Flesh", or how to make invisible matter tangible. This is the constant objective of Italian musician Marta De Pascalis, who aims for the sublime. For this album, she concentrates on a single instrument, the Yamaha CS-60, the analogue synthesiser that produces these celestial arpeggios.
The choice of this instrument is not insignificant. It's a model that came into being a few years before the MIDI protocol (1977), whose aim was to standardise synthesiser production methods. The first three tracks 'voXCS60x', 'The Shapes We Buried' and 'Blue To Blue' are a triptych of atmospheric loops and impressive reverberations without the aid of MIDI.
De Pascalis prefers to experiment through a technique and reflection associated with acoustic instruments, particularly the organ. De Pascalis's philosophy is far removed from the praise heaped on productions assisted by the algorithms proposed by artificial intelligence. Using electronics, she explores Renaissance themes, which explains her close relationship with Caterina Barbiera, owner of the label on which this project is released.
Words: Adé.
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Photo: Camille Le Prince.
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