After so much petting, our ears still need a little sharpness. TIMOTHEÉ QUOST has plenty of that to offer. Because on "Flatten The Curve" (Carton) he combines original tones from retirement homes with new chamber music - that is, reminiscent murmuring and telling, crows and bells ringing with avant squeaking, improbing and meaningful background noises. A mixture that seems crude, turned out to be music, but works astonishingly well.
(Carton Records / Insub Records)
Gleich von der ersten Sekunde macht diese CD klar, dass sie sich an Avantgarde-geschulte Ohren wendet. Vor einem nervös pfeifenden Sirren werden flatternde TrompetenLaute durch die Kanäle geschleift, die nur schwer als solche zu deuten sind, aber das Stück mit dem schönen Namen "Franzform" schon mal zu einem wirklich beeindruckenden opener machen – kurz vor Schluß hat man dann sogar kurz Angst, der CD-Laser hätte sich aufhangen. Laurain beschreitet den so gewiesenen Weg konsequent weiter. "Rhypnotic" ist im SoundDesign zwar gedämpfter, aber der Franzose traktiert Mundstück und Ventilmaschine seiner Trompete auch hier auf so unorthodoxe wie faszinierende Weise. Wieder werden Schleifen gebunden und aufgelöst, loops geknüpft und zerrissen – schnell entsteht ein hypnotischer Strudel aus selten (so) gehörten Klängen. Später verbinden sich in der Musik unbefleckte Sinuswellen aus dem Generator mit solchen aus dem TrompetenTrichter zu wundersamen Resonanzen, auch einige in field recordings freudig zwitschernde Vogelstimmen werden verbaut – der Klang bleibt dabei aber stets frei, im besten Sinne fremd und irgendwie auch fröhlich. In Berlin spielt Laurain ab und an mit Pierre Borel, Hannes Lingens und Antonio Borghini als "Die Hochstapler" – ein solcher ist er im wirklichen (Musik)Leben aber keineswegs. 5
Weitere Infos: › www.louis-laurain.com
Put out on the circuit as cat.no. 014 of the Lyon / France-based label Carton Records is "Peau", the new, seven tracks and roughly 50 minutes spanning album by five piece outfit Trojan Panda which is centered around Jozef Dumoulin's idea to combine a 70s Alternative Rock touch with the vibe of Jazz- and otherwise classically trained musicians playing instruments they're not necessarily well versed in. Following this approach over the course of the past five years Trojan Panda fuses the sound of three guitars with bass and drums on this longplayer, resulting in an atmospherically dense, ever meandering flow of greyscale'ish desolation PostRock - think: Village Of Savoonga -, paired with echoes of echoes of dubbed out Industrial vibes, the artschool-leaning distortions and feedbacks that were also prevalent in Germany's famed Ingenious Dilletantes-movement which, especially in a cut like "Sylvie Coiffure", seem to be harking back to the era of Psychedelic Rock indeed, yet present more of a very singular and unique angle on improvisational guitar music, sitting in a timeless drawer of its own which is yet to be named but defo is speaking to followers of darkest and most experimental (No)Wave, PostPunk and abstract Hardcore from the cold war- / iron curtain-era alike. Quite a trip, this. Check.
Bei TROJAN PANDA ist Dumoulin einer von gleich drei Gitarristen, "Peau" (Carton) klingt oft wie Sonic Youth in Jazz, leistet sich aber mit dem Bach-Choral "Christus der uns selig macht" auch eine kleine akustische Finesse. 5
I haven´t been writing a lot for quite a while except for radioshows and dj mixes, so sorry for that, but now the first few interesting new releases of the year are about to come and first I´d like to mention those two great Lp´s, I really listnened to in heavy rotation over the last days.
The first is another fine 10″ release by Brussels label Okraina records, that came up last year with the fantastic “Song Cycle” by Eloise Decazes & Delphine Dora with new -interpretations of old Luciano Berio Songs. And in the new 22 minutes EP we hear Catherine Hershey singing old poems of her grandfather Galen E. Hershey, a pastor in Pontiac, Michigan.
The first two songs are dark stripped down intimate folk songs, “Warm August Wind” almost acapella sung by Cathrine Hershey, while the third song “Heart Lyric”, my personal favourite, is sung by Gilles Poizat and accompanied by a sudden -I´ll call it spanish for no reason – trumpet tune. Poizat´s voice reminds especially in this song of Robert Wyatt or John Jacob Niles. The next songs, sung by both are meandering between folk tunes and sudden velvet underground noise pieces and guitar, flute and trumped tunes, always surprising and keeping the fragile tension of these poems. Mesmerizing and of simple beauty – like the artwork is!
I am no ancient bard / Serene and bold / Whose words are smooth and hard /Outwearing gold /Nor am I prophet / Who stands alone / To carve his rude surmis / Of truth in stone / As autumn drops each leaf / My songs go free / Their silent flight as brief / As flight can be / By chance, my words may ease / Some ache or wrong /But mostly may they please / The ways of song