ARANDEL
In D
IF1009
InFiné 2010
09 Tracks. 51mins26secs

Amazon UK: CD iTunes: DLD

Who, or what, is Arandel is something of a mystery, and every effort is made to blur the track as much as possible, all, we are informed on the entity’s myspace page, to ‘let the music take centre stage’. All the press release lets out is that Arandel is a ‘he’, and reading between the lines also leads to think that this could be the more extreme project of an already established artist, a singer-songwriter perhaps. Anonymity is nothing new on the electronic music scene of course, although it is not quite as much of a common occurrence as it once was. One can argue that putting the music before the person is really what making music is all about, although anonymity can often be an act of vanity in itself as it cultivates interest way beyond the music. Fundamentally, who, or what, is Arandel doesn’t matter much. That Arandel’s debut is quite simply a blindingly brilliant affair very much does though.

So, we have it, an act who occasionally performs live hidden behind a curtain, with a record which is a masterful exercise in contemporary electronic music and beyond. The album opens with the sumptuous In D#1 and In D#5, which bear more than a passing resemblance to the sweeping post classical sound and minutiously laid out micro beats that Murcof perfected on Martes, and this continues to infuse through much of the record. But, from In D#6, the scope widens greatly as the overall sound has an increasingly live feel. Working entirely from sounds sourced from real instruments, which he recorded himself, with no external sample, and using only analogue electronic equipment, Arandel combines textures with extreme dexterity, balancing each piece with a wealth of acoustic and processed sound. In D#7 opens with the melancholic drone of a violin and a cello, which echo later on in the dying moment of Epilogue, but as the pace picks up momentum, things become much more layered and electronic. In D#9, which follows, is propelled by live drums and saturated guitars, while on In D#10, a sitar and a piano, placed over a backdrop of street noises, are locked in a particularly refined dialogue.

The title of this album is a not so disguised nod to Terry Riley’s legendary In C, a piece which, while following a very strict structure, can be performed by any number of musicians and last for as little or as long as wanted. This is an ethic that Arandel is keen to apply to his project, but In C is also a much more obvious and immediate influence on In D#8, during which a single note played on a xylophone is repeated almost to infinite, while a second, two-note, theme, then a third, this time based on three-notes, are slowly woven into the first, while strings create contrasted shaded areas in the background.

Arandel is not a project totally cut out of the world, and the man behind it hints at bringing on board contributors, temporary or permanent, in the future. This is already a working process on In D#6, on which Fredo Viola makes a noted appearance on vocals. For the rest of the record though, Arandel is largely on his own, orchestrating the whole thing with maturity and channelling a very unique vision into every corner of this record.

4.9/5

Arandel (MySpace) | InFiné
Amazon UK: CD iTunes: DLD