9/10
A veteran in the area of electronic music, Julien Boudart brings his skills in Serge Modular synthesizer, field recordings and nonlinear speakers to this highly creative listen that balances bareness with busy textures.
After the 30 second opener, “Ankrousis”, leads the listen with lone bell, “Gorgo” follows with ominous, innovative electronic sounds that resembles snakes slithering in another dimension, effectively intriguing us.
Things only get more unusual from here, including the dark rumbling of “Lambikon”, where sci-fi buzzing roams alongside aberrant, space like moments, while “Perseus (Spondelon)” unfolds with bell manipulation that’s hypnotic, unorthodox and entirely alluring.
Landing close the end is “Golden Rain”, where a cinematic quality is met with percussive like sounds that resemble water, but not in the conventional sense, and “Song Of Libation” exits the listen repetitive, soft and mesmerizing in its artistic delivery.
An absolutely absorbing effort that excels at both synthetic and organic ideas, Boudart’s profound use of the Serge Modular takes us on an unpredictable journey that makes this first solo album a truly genre defying experience.
Over the last year I have been trying to extend my musical boundaries. I have had the time and opportunity to listen to more classical and experimental music, mostly thanks to Radio 3’s diverse programming. Julien Boudart’s latest release appealed to my new found interests. I am also increasingly aware of artists and musicians, past and present, who use myths of Ancient Greece as inspiration. These stories continue to resonate in our everyday lives as we recognise the global issues we have to deal with. Boudart is a French composer and musician who has been performing and composing on electronic instruments since the 1990s. His academic background is in mathematics and social science. He has developed a theoretical and philosophical aspect to his work and his approach to music and sound. This approach reflects both contemporary politics and the religious and magical aspects of musical performance. His work to date has involved collaborations with artists and musicians who are equally committed to pushing boundaries and taking inspiration from ancient myths and music. Listening to ‘Nome Polycephale’, his first solo album, it is no surprise that he has composed works for theatre, radio and multimedia performances. This piece is based on a report of an ancient lost tune, played on an aulos (a kind of Greek double flute), and mentioned by Pindar in his poems. Boudart has composed these pieces on a Serge modular synthesiser, using non linear speakers (similar to the Leslie speaker) and including field recordings. This is a sonic experience, and in keeping with the inspiration, the murder of a gorgon, (like Medusa), it is both disturbing and fascinating. It is visceral at times. Some pieces are more accessible than others, but accessibility isn’t really the point. It is a collection of compositions that should be the accompaniment to a ritual or ceremony. This is an intriguing reminder of the power of sound to shift and transform the world around it.
Attivo dagli anni Novanta, Julien Boudart, con alle spalle una lunga carriera passata tra free party, teatro e radio, mette in musica il mito di Nome Polycephale.
Basato su un racconto di Pindaro, Nome Polycephale / Ancient and ModernMyths vol. 1 in uscita il 9 aprile 2021 via Carton Records, racchiude in nove tracce di musica sperimentale l’uccisione di una gorgone, l’invenzione di uno strumento musicale, il potere dei suoni del serpente, lo stato di trance e la possessione, la pura distruzione.
Nome Polycephale è il risultato di un lavoro iniziato nel 2015 che vede protagonista il sintetizzatore modulare Serge con i diffusori non lineari. Ne scaturisce un lavoro di ricerca sonora tra musica concreta e ambient.
Un breve intro spalanca la strada a Gorgo. Una produzione carica di tensione pervasa da un sibilo elettronico, un riferimento ai serpenti che le gorgoni avevano al posto dei capelli. In sottofondo Boudart sviluppa un profondo drone checontribuisce a creare un’atmosfera sinistra. Sonorità lente e gelide trasmettono nell’ascoltatore un senso d’inquietudine mentre scorrono le sinusoidi a dente di sega.
Un paesaggio meno estremo del precedente, To the land of Hyperboreans è caratterizzato da uttuazioni cosmiche e granulose. Un processo in continuo divenire che rende la materia sonora estremamente vivida e pulsante. At the edgetowards the night è un marea in tempesta di sinusoidali che s’increspano, cambiano forma, per una traccia astratta dall’atmosfera rarefatta.
Di tutt’altro aspetto Perseus (spondeion): un loop ipnotico che nella sua staticità diventa ipnotico grazie ad un gioco timbrico ossessivo.
L’album si chiude con la catartica Song of libation, il rituale del vino ripreso attraverso un pattern ritmico ripetuto no a provocare una sensazione di rintontimento.
Nome Polycephale / Ancient and Modern Myths vol. 1 è un lavoro articolato che difcilmente sarà apprezzato da un vasto pubblico. Dal canto suo Boudart rappresenta il mito di Nome Polycephalecon una tavolozza di suoni così dettagliata da riuscire a coinvolgere n da subito con una narrazione avvincente.
Nome Polycephale / Ancient and Modern Myths vol. 1 est le premier album solo de Julien Boudart, électronicien français qui se déploie de projet en projet depuis la fin des années 1990. Notre playlist se conclut par une séance de défrichage à quelques années lumières d’ici.
Французский музыкант Жюльен Будар занимается электронной музыкой с середины 90-х годов. В начале нулевых Жюльен на какое-то время перешел к акустическим проектам в сфере свободной импровизации, но затем вновь вернулся к электронике, причем с 2015 года его любимым инструментом стал модулярный синтезатор Serge. Надо добавить, что Жюльен чрезвычайно социально активный человек, ведущий свое политико-философское ревю и чутко откликающийся на жгучие вопросы современности. Правда, его новый альбом, первый в серии «Античные и современные мифы», вроде бы уносит нас под звуки неизменного Serge и аккомпанемент конкретных звучаний во времена очень далекие и вроде бы с днем сегодняшним не очень связанные, но это вам только кажется…
Опираясь на «Двенадцатую пифийскую оду» древнегреческого поэта Пиндара, Жюльен вспоминает рассказ о том, что после того как герой Персей убил медузу Горгону, Афина, впечатлившись жалобными криками ее сестер, изобрела музыкальный инструмент аулос (что почему-то часто и неправильно переводят, как «флейта») и решила сыграть на пиру у богов. Но боги только смеялись над тем, как она забавно надувает щеки при игре. Разгневанная Афина выбросила аулос, который подобрал сатир Марсий и научился так хорошо на нем играть, что вызвал на состязание Аполлона. Для бедного Марсия и одобрившего его игру царя Мидаса этот «музыкальный конкурс» закончился печально. Мидас отделался появившимися у него ослиными ушами, а вот с Марсия Аполлон просто содрал кожу… Такое вот античное Евровидение!
Я не большой знаток и ценитель электронной музыки. Могу лишь отметить, что часть пьес, исполненных в этом альбоме Бударом тяготеет к экспериментальной музыке, а другая ближе к более традиционному развитию, хотя и передаваемому электроникой и полевыми записями. Во всяком случае, мне было весьма интересно слушать альбом в целом, а от таких пьес, как To the land of Hyperboreans или Golden rain даже получить вполне определенное эстетическое удовольствие. Ну, а философскую связь древних жестоких мифов с не менее жестокими современными реалиями призываю вас поискать самостоятельно: она определенно есть! А Жюльен Будар тем временем подыщет нам новые античные и современные истории…
Cet album n’est pas un album solo contrairement à ce que le nom pourrait le laisser penser. C’est bien un album de Julien Boudart mais en compagnie de Serge. Je précise Serge n’est pas une personne. Serge Modular pour son nom complet, est un synthétiseur que développa un certain Serge Tcherepnin en Californie dans les années 70. Avec ce compagnon quinquagénaire, Julien Boudart s’enivre et expérimente des territoires nouveaux et escarpés. Adepte d’un field recording aux aspérités multiples, aux sonorités hétéroclites, Julien Boudart parvient avec Serge à faire de cette matière quelque chose de qui doit autant de la transcendance qu’à une forme de communication entre des entités qui ne pouvaient se croiser. Il y a à la fois un échange entre les époques, mais aussi une forme de dialogue imaginaire entre des peuplades devant autant à la légende qu’aux envies d’une humanité possible en filigrane. Œuvre au premier abord exigeante, elle deviendra au fil des écoutes une expérience ludique, une symbiose entre un compositeur fureteur et une machine qui en étant en avance sur son temps sait construire des passerelles que Julien Bodart arpentera avec une gourmandise communicative.
O compositor francês Julien Boudart, anunciou a edição do seu novo álbum “Nome Polycephale / Ancient and Modern Myths vol. 1” para 9 de Abril de 2021 através da Carton Records em formato CD e de todas as plataformas digitais.
Julien Boudart (Serge Modular synthesizer, field recording, nonlinear speakers), has been performing and composing on electronic music instruments since the mid 90’s. He made his first musical experiments on crude diy circuits, a modded radioshack toy organ and a pair of cassette decks. He has been active in the parisian free party scene until the beginning of the 00’s. He then focused more on collaborations with acoustic performers, often in context of collective improvisation. The Korg MS20, which he has been playing since 1996, has long been his instrument of choice. Modular synths, particularly the Serge, have been taking an increasing role in its music since 2015. Aside his solo works, he is involved in a handful of regular bands, works for theater, radio and multimedia performances.
Nome Polycephale is the result of a work on the Serge Modular with nonlinear diffuseurs, started in 2015 at la Muse en Circuit, continued at Elektronmusikstudion. It is the first volume of an «ancient and modern myths» series.
Based on an ancient lost tune and on a myth told by Pindar, Nome Polycephaleis about: the murder of a gorgon. The invention of a musical instrument. The power of snake sounds. Trance and possession. Pure destruction. Civilizing gods and heroes fighting reptilian figures of chaos and being haunted by them. “Civilization” being essentially identical to its fantasized ennemies. All those things being clear to us again, living as we are in an age of global terror and devastation.
Julien Boudart (Serge Modular synthesizer, field recording, nonlinear speakers), has been performing and composing on electronic music instruments since the mid 90’s. He made his first musical experiments on crude diy circuits, a modded radioshack toy organ and a pair of cassette decks. He has been active in the parisian free party scene until the beginning of the 00’s. He then focused more on collaborations with acoustic performers, often in context of collective improvisation. The Korg MS20, which he has been playing since 1996, has long been his instrument of choice. Modular synths, particularly the Serge, have been taking an increasing role in its music since 2015. Aside his solo works, he is involved in a handful of regular bands, works for theater, radio and multimedia performances.
Nome Polycephale is the result of a work on the Serge Modular with nonlinear diffuseurs, started in 2015 at la Muse en Circuit, continued at Elektronmusikstudion. It is the first volume of an «ancient and modern myths» series.
Based on an ancient lost tune and on a myth told by Pindar, Nome Polycephaleis about: the murder of a gorgon. The invention of a musical instrument. The power of snake sounds. Trance and possession. Pure destruction. Civilizing gods and heroes fighting reptilian figures of chaos and being haunted by them. “Civilization” being essentially identical to its fantasized ennemies. All those things being clear to us again, living as we are in an age of global terror and devastation.