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Showing posts with label Crammed Discs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Crammed Discs. Show all posts

Friday, October 15, 2021

Aquaserge "The Possibility of a New Work for Aquaserge"

Country: France
Genre(s)Avant Garde, Classical, Fusion
Label: Made to Measure/Crammed Discs - MTM46
Format: CD, vinyl, digital
Release date: October 15, 2021
Tracklist
1. Un grand sommeil noir (4:28)
2. 1768°C (À Edgar Varèse) (7:04)
3. Hommage à Giacinto Scelsi (6:29)
4. Only (1:16)
5. Comme des carrés de Feldman (5:11)
6. Only (version 2) (1:36)
7. Nuit terrestre (À Gyorgy Ligeti) (10:02)
8. Nuit altérée (À Gyorgy Ligeti) (2:38)

Total Time 38:44

Line-up
Audrey Ginestet - vocals, electric bass, synthesizer
Benjamin Glibert - electric guitar, electric bass, organ, synthesizer, backing vocals
Camille Émaille - percussion, vibraphone, tubular bells
Julien Chamla - drums & percussion, organ, synthesizer, bass harp, backing vocals
Julien Gasc - vocals, synthesizer, rattle
Manon Glibert - clarinet, backing vocals
Marina Tantanozi - flute, backing vocals
Olivier Kelchtermans - baritone saxophone, backing vocals
Robin Fincker - tenor saxophone, clarinet, backing vocals

Description/Reviews:
Always ready to expand their scope and blur the genre borders, the inventive, revered French avant-rock band have decided to tackle the field of contemporary classical music from the mid-20th century, in a special project which pays tribute to four major atypical figures: Giacinto Scelsi (1905-1988), György Ligeti (1923-2006), Edgard Varèse (1883-1965) and Morton Feldman (1926-1987).
Drawing inspiration from these composers’ respective approaches in terms of dynamics, sonic textures and duration, more specifically from Scelsi’s exploration of timbres and oscillations, Ligeti’s moving clusters, Varèse’s melodic cubism and Feldman-type graphic scores, Aquaserge have approached this album with a mixture of raw intuition and strict method, and have created pieces for a hybrid, semi-classical and semi-rock expanded 9-piece line-up.
The album revolves around three slow, extended, spacious pieces, in which the instruments’ timbres are merging into one another to create a fascinating sonic matter, both immobile and moving, like in certain works by Ligeti and Scelsi. By contrast, Aquaserge’s tributes to Varèse and Feldman include explosive moments, as well as segments of wild improv. These original Aquaserge compositions are completed by interpretations of three rare songs written by Edgard Varèse (on a poem by Verlaine) and Morton Feldman (on a Rilke text), which remind us of Aquaserge’s taste for melodies.

Media/Samples
Bandcamp

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Friday, May 22, 2020

Aksak Maboul "Figures"


Country: Belgium
Genre(s)Avant Prog Rock/Pop, Electronica
LabelCrammed Discs
FormatCD, vinyl, digital
Release date: May 22, 2020
Tracklist
Disc 1
1. Among The Naeporu (0:28)
2. C'est Charles (4:20)
3. Taciturne (6:54)
4. Silhouettes (4:39)
5. True, False, Fictive (1:25)
6. Histoires de fous (5:32)
7. Sophie La Bévue (1:57)
8. Formerly Known As Défilé (3:20)
9. How Should One Read A Book? (0:28)
10. Spleenétique (5:47)
11. Sgraffites (4:20)

Total Disc 1 Time 39:10

Disc 2
1. The Untranslatable (1:32)
2. Retour Chez A. (5:00)
3. Dramuscule (6:42)
4. Excerpt from Uccellini (1:16)
5. Un Caïd (5:26)
6. Martial Arts For Boys (0:16)
7. Un Certain M. (1:26)
8. Ins Bleistiftgebiet (1:33)
9. Fatrasie pulvérisée (3:33)
10. Qu’est-ce que c’est “mot"? (1:01)
11. Tout a une fin (8:35)

Total Disc 2 Time 36:20

Line-up
Véronique Vincent: vocals
Marc Hollander: keyboards, sax & clarinets, percussion, programming, field recordings, etc.
Faustine Hollander: backing vocals, bass, guitar
Lucien Fraipont: guitars
Erik Heestermans: drums
    With
Michel Berckmans: basoon
Steven Brown: vocals
Fred Frith: viola, guitar
Julien Gasc: vocals
Audrey Ginestet: backing vocals, field recordings
Benjamin Glibert: guitar, backing vocals
Jordi Grognard: clarinet, bass clarinet, flute
Martin Méreau: drums, percussion, vibraphone
Sebastiaan Van den Branden: guitar, percussion

Description/Reviews
Drawing again from the multiple sources which have always inspired the band (from electronic music and pop to experimentation, jazz, minimalism, contemporary classical etc), Aksak Maboul transcends and reconfigures them with its inimitable style, to create an impressive, rich and unclassifiable piece of work.
 Seamlessly weaving electronic and acoustic instrumentation, improvisation and programming, songs, beats, found objects and sound collages, the album works as a labyrinth, full of secret passages and interconnections. Figures clocks in at 75 minutes, thus deliberately shunning the laws of instant gratification and the myth of today’s reduced attention span: the Aksak Maboul aficionados will surely be happy to engage in an immersive session of deep listening (in two halves), in order to enjoy the album’s many layers and details.
Media/Samples 
Bandcamp

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Saturday, February 4, 2017

Aquaserge "Laisse ça être"


Country: France
Genre(s): Avant Garde, Art Rock, Psychedelic, Pop
Label: Almost Musique (France) /Crammed Discs - CRAM278 (ROW)
Format: CD, vinyl, digital
Release date: February 3, 2017
Tracklist
1. Tour Du Monde (4:04)
2. Virage Sud (4:01)
3. Tintin On Est Bien Mon Loulou (6:00)
4. Si Loin Si Proche (8:18)
5. C'est Pas Tout Mais (5:37)
6. L'ire Est Au Rendez-vous (5:39)
7. Charme D'Orient (5:28)
8. Les Yeux Fermes (6:36)

Total time 45:43

Line-up:
Julien Barbagallo (Tame Impala) - drums, percussion
Benjamin Glibert - guitar, vocals
Julien Gasc - keyboards, guitar, vocals
Audrey Ginestet - bass, vocals
Manon Gilbert - clarinet
Julien Chamla - drums, percussion
   With
Sebastien Cirotteau - trumpet
Olivier Kelchtermans - sax, flute

Description/Reviews
Coded messages, anadiplosis and automatic writing, dance music grooves peppered with rhythmical & metrical twists, shades of Italian or French film music, a dense political & poetic subtext: such are the ingredients of "Laisse ça être", the new album by brilliant experimental pop band Aquaserge.
Media/Samples 
Bandcamp

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Monday, October 13, 2014

Véronique Vincent & Aksak Maboul with The Honeymoon Killers "Ex-Futur Album"


Country: Belgium
Sub GenreAvant Prog Rock/Pop
LabelCrammed Discs
FormatCD, vinyl, digital
Release dateOctober 13, 2014 (EU) October 27, 2014 (France)
Tracklist
  1. Chez les Aborigènes - 4:14
  2. Afflux De Luxe - 5:33
  3. Je Pleure Tout Le Temps - 4:09
  4. Veronika Winken - 4:29
  5. Réveillons-Nous - 6:58
  6. I'm Always Crying - 4:20
  7. My Kind of Doll - 3:19
  8. Luxurious Dub - 3:32
  9. Le Troisième Personnage - 4:44
  10. The Aboriginal Variations - 8:23
  11. Réveillons-nous (live) (Bonus Track) - 3:42
  12. Mit den Eingeborenen (live) (Bonus Track) - 8:57
  13. I'm Always Remixing (Bonus Track) - 4:20
Line-up
Véronique Vincent (Honeymoon Killers) - vocals
Marc Hollander - keyboards, woodwind, programming, arrangements
Vincent Kenis - guitars, bass
   With
guests including the other half of The Honeymoon Killers, Alig Fodder, Tuxedomoon’s Blaine Reininger and more.

Description/Reviews
Crammed Discs founder Marc Hollander and Honeymoon Killers vocalist Véronique Vincent finally release their trailblazing avant-pop album, recorded and unfinished in… 1980-83!
This record was never completed. What was originally intended to become the third album by Aksak Maboul (the seminal band formed by Marc Hollander) had gradually evolved into a strange artefact, closely mingling (iconic Honeymoon Killers chanteuse) Véronique Vincent’s dreamy vocals and deceptively bubbly lyrics with Hollander’s musical ramblings. Electronic pop music with genre-wrecking leanings. But the project (too pop to be experimental? too quirky for early ‘80s pop?) was dropped at some point, and life went on.
When they were ‘rediscovered’ three decades later, it seemed obvious that the songs had aged delightfully well, and that they probably make a lot more sense now than they did then… So here’s that Ex-Future Album, collated from demos and rough mixes (some of them on cassette tapes), and brought to you in its original glorious unfinished state, with a slight delay of 30 years.
This most unusual story is far from being the only point of interest of Ex-Futur Album: the songs overflow with memorable melodies, with playful trademark Aksak Maboul instrumental moments and eventful arrangements which all give the album a retrofuturistic, almost timeless aspect, often predating certain hybrid musical trends which may or may not have emerged later on (think pop meets proto-techno, with African, Middle-Eastern, dub, jazz & cinematic French flavours…)

Media/Samples 
Chez les Aborigènes
Afflux de luxe

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