Hello Spiral is a rather weird and enchanting
record. Never focusing for long on a same point, Olivier
Lamm apparently randomly injects about every influence
imaginable, jumping from one atmospheric setting to
the next without warning. Like a kid in a sweet shop,
he wants to try everything, touch everything, smell
everything, and nothing gets in his way.
Originally a member of French experimental collective
Evènement! which he joined in 1999, Paris-based
Oliver Lamm soon started collaborating with various
members of the collective on specific projects, eventually
leading him to set up his own, O.Lamm. His first solo
released, Sturninn, appeared on the ever-excellent
Active Suspension back in 2000 and was followed by a
seven track EP, Matière Micrométric
in 2001, and an album, Snow Party, a year later.
Complex and impertinent, this album offered an in-depth
insight into Lamm’s seriously chaotic digital
world. Cut-up samples collided with tachycardiac beat
patterns and disjointed electronics to create a seriously
intriguing record.
Although Hello Spiral bears undeniable similarities
with its predecessor, it is a far more advanced and
sophisticated record. More than ever determined to celebrate
pop music, be it under the most unlikely form, Olivier
Lamm enrolled for his second album the vocal talents
of Zoë Wolf, Davide
Balula, the Lucifer Amp Choir, Odot, Noak Katoi
and Kumi Okamoto to inject life into a series of actual
songs. As hectic as Snow Party, Hello Spiral
offers a more complex collection of sounds, ranging
from acoustic instrumentation to distorted blank noise,
drones to found sounds, abrasive electronic to children
rhymes, all collected patiently and placed at strategic
moments. Yet, Olivier makes all this sound like a gigantic
accidental mess unintentionally wrapped around the songs.
Trapped in dense layers of sonic elements, voices become
buoys in the middle of an ocean, providing necessary
points of human interaction on the listener’s
way.
The press release references work as diverse as John
Cage and James Joyce’s Roaratorio, Primal
Scream’s Screamadelica, XTC’s Nonsuch,
the Magnetic Fields’ 69 Love Songs, David
Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest, Hecker’s
Sun Pandämonium or Bob Dylan’s Highway
61 Revisited, yet Hello Spiral relies on many more
sources of influence, obvious or not. Holding all this
together in something half-coherent would be daunting
for most, but Lamm actually seems to love nothing better
than giving some sense to this bric-a-brac and manages
to produces a surprisingly consistent and captivating
record.
Nothing could fully prepare for what O.Lamm has to offer,
and this album is certainly proof that he is ready to
provide the unexpected. Truly in line with previous
Active Suspension releases, Hello Spiral is
above all a beautiful piece of electronic poetry.
4.6/5 |
