Emerging from Quebec City, in the French speaking part
of Canada, Charles-Emile Beullac was first noticed on
Worm Interface’s Alt. Frequencies 4 compilation,
where he shared listening time with Mira
Calix, Jake Mandell, Freeform
and Plod, contributing with the beautiful Vu.
Beullac spent most of his early teens learning about electronic
music on a cheap keyboard/sequencer, while listening to
almost anything from Jean-Michel Jarre’s Oxygene to Public
Enemy, the Pixies, Autechre
and classical music. With such a wide range of influences,
it is rather surprising that his first album, Nothing
Down-To-Earth, is so consistent and focused.
Using mostly analog sounds and effects, without a sample
in sight, Beullac builds short effective melancholic vignettes
(the longest track clocking at just over five and a half
minutes) on which he drapes luscious melodies and complex
structures. If the connection with Boards
Of Canada is tempting, it is also too easy and undermining
a comparison to fully appreciate the imaginative soundscapes
served here. Perhaps more accurate would be to associate
Beullac with Biosphere
as the man confesses finding inspiration in the icy atmosphere
of the long Canadian winters. If his music is equally
as reflective and his sonic configurations are equally
as rich and dense as Geir
Jenssen’s, Beullac presents an altogether more accessible
journey through composite music. Playing on the dichotomy
between light-minded melodies and dark arrangements, he
in turn creates magnificent pieces of innocence (Algeria,
Soleil Levant) or perversion (Léviathan,
Bathyscaphe). Nostalgic in the way trains journeys
are, Nothing Down-To-Earth seems hermetic to
any interaction with the outside world, retreating instead
in the closeted comfort of Beullac’s imaginary world.
Each track is strongly individual, yet very consistent
in form and shape with the next, contributing in this
album being extremely coherent. Although there is no weak
moment here, the strongest elements of this record are
to be found on the spooky Léviathan
and Bathyscaphe and the more light-minded
Rylka and Dictaphone.
With this first effort, Charles-Emile Beullac is proving
to withstand the comparison with some of the more established
names around the world. His intimate music proves full
of magic or mischief, and deserves to make its way to
any decent record collection.
5/5 |
