This was a combination I didn’t expect. It’s not uncommon for, say, black metal musicians to integrate their music into pagan folk and make a good hybrid, but this is something different. Antiq combine soaring traditional Basque and Breton vocals with a proper metal backing, and somehow, by some strange miracle, it all comes together very well. As far as metal goes, this is really quite good.
This is the second guitar-based album we’ve had the pleasure of reviewing this week. This one comes from Mexican-French guitarist Hector (H.J.) Ayala who works out of Strasbourg, France. The album is a gentle, twangy, pleasantly meandering collection of tones which belong to a film which has not yet been made. Ayala continues to develop his mastery of the guitar and the ambience he brings to his compositions. Another solid release.
This acousmatic gem by French composer Benjamin Aït-Ali was released at the end of 2020, and it’s as engaging as anything I’ve heard this year. There are many electroacoustic and acousmatic composers active today, including in my old hometown, who are of stunning quality, but Benjamin offers something a bit different to my ears. There’s a nostalgic sound involved, almost as if he were cutting and splicing these sounds together by hand. I don’t know his compositional or recording technique, of course, but there are warm pops and cracks throughout the recording. It’s truly cinema for the ears.
Bassist and composer Gui Duvignau was born in France, but raised in Brazil. In his latest album, he interprets some classic work by the legendary Brazilian guitarist Baden Powell, whose work left an indelible mark on the samba and bossa nova scene worldwide.
From July of 2021 we have a release from the French ambient project Esmez. The gentle, dulcet sounds of each of these four tracks have made for very pleasant Sunday listening, and would really appeal to fans of Brian Eno’s earlier ambient works. For Esmez’s motivations on making the album, consider visiting their Bandcamp site.
As we observe Christmas Eve and the Nativity today and tomorrow based on the Julian Calendar, we share an avant-garde take on “Christmas” music. The French experimental record label Camembert Électrique have released a 94-track comp of some rather interesting takes of some Yuletide classics, as well as a fair number of originals. Some of the artists included include Anastasia Vronski, Sean Derek Cooper Marquart, James Hoehl, and our dear friends, Lezet. It’s not a conventional compilation for the season, but it holds its own rather well.
Land Of Waves, the 6th album by French electroacoustic composer Bérangère Maximin, came out in June of 2020, and when I first heard it, was was left utterly impressed, but I have not had a chance to review it until today. Maximin has an incredible talent to blend together nature, minerals, plant life, animal life, city life, and make it speak in one warmly organized opus. I will have to check if she has released something since then, but, as this is the latest work I can find from her, I can say with some measure of confidence that she’s…
Jean-Sébastien Héry is a French ex-pat musician living in China. He has a very impressive body of work covering over 50 albums of music ranging from electro music to rock performed on traditional Chinese instruments like the zhonguran and pipa. His work is singular, as there doesn’t seem to be anyone, either inside or outside of China, combining these elements together. His latest album covers ten evergreen recordings, including Herbie Hancock’s masterpiece, Cantaloupe Island, and My Favorite Things, made into a classic by the film The Sound of Music starring Julie Andrews. The album is charming all the way through.
Our dear friends at Kalamine Records have surprised me with yet another fine release. This album comes from the project Lezet, which is the working name of my friend Igor Jovanović. It is fair to say that this is true experimental music, or perhaps it’s better to call this sound art. The album is, as Igor puts it, “an album of assorted sounds made in mic’s physical interactions with various surfaces and other accidental sounds recorded during these interactions.”
We had the pleasure of reviewing a soundtrack by former Art Zoyd composer Thierry Zaboitzeff in August, and now we’re happy to announce that he has a 20-minute EP now available to peruse. The title track, Pagan Dances, will sound somewhat familiar to Art Zoyd fans, but he has added much better recording. The spirit of avant-progressive rock, dark and brooding, enriches the track. There is Zaboitzeff’s trademark cello work all over the piece, and this work would have fit well in a rescoring of The House Of Usher starring Vincent Price. Creepy, yes, but engaging. The second track, La…