VARIOUS ARTISTS
Musique Pour Statues Menhirs
ARBOU026
Arbouse Recordings 2009
21 Tracks. 123mins59secs

The musée Fenaille, in Rodez, South of France, is an archaeological museum which has in its collection a wide array of ‘statues menhirs’, or carved stones which are the first known life-size representations of man. Local record label Arbouse Recordings commissioned a number of artists to create a soundtrack for the museum collection, each providing one track to the project, and three of them were later invited to perform live in the museum.

The panel of musicians and sound artists invited to take part to the project is extremely diverse, with the likes of Fennesz, Benoît Pioulard, John Hughes, Sylvain Chauveau, Greg Davis, Schneider TM, Mapstation, Mira Calix or Jasper TX, rubbing shoulders with less known contributors such as ww.lowman, Rafael Anton Irisarri, Astrïd, Serafina Steer, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma or Orla Wren to create a truly evocative and sumptuous document which constantly shifts between dense soundscapes, ambient electronic, delicate avant-folk or truly experimental, yet appears surprisingly consistent and meaningful. And this is very much the tour de force achieved with this record, to combine musicians coming from such diverse backgrounds and create a very coherent piece.

Initially, Fennesz, Rafael Anton Irisarri, David Daniell,  ww.lowman or Benoît Pioulard create somewhat sombre and meditative pieces with their respective contributions, while Parlour offers the much more contrasted A Permanent Night, breaking up the mood for a moment, but soon the tone becomes richer, more diverse, first with the beautiful I Guess This Is Yours That You Haven’t Picked, by young British harpist Serafina Steer, who processes her instrument and renders it through moody electronics, then with the delicate motifs created by John Hughes or Astrïd, the former in a predominantly electronic register, the latter with guitars, strings, double bass and clarinet.

Later on, abstract sound formations of the likes created by Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, Greg Davis or Schneider TM, find their place next to much lighter and melodic pieces, from Orla Wren and Zelienople to Nathan Bell, Melodium or Mapstation, while Sylvain Chauveau creates the typically bare and sparse La Chanson Des Pierres, which almost appears to mimic the static nature of the stones at the heart of the project. Mira Calix’s epic contribution is built from sounds sourced from stones of various sizes and ornamented with abstract string work, electronics and field recordings. Later, Jasper TX, who is closing proceedings, offers a typical piece where processed guitars and field recordings are arranged into incredibly vast and ambitious soundscapes. Just before, vs_price launches a virulent electronic assault on this otherwise relatively introspective project.

Musique Pour Statues Menhirs is a project like no other, and the resulting soundtrack is nothing short of stunning. It is difficult to understand fully how these compositions could work within the context of the permanent exhibition of the museum’s collection of carved stones, but the great variety of approach and genres collated here works surprisingly well as a standalone piece and acts as one of the strongest document of contemporary music heard in a long time.

4.8/5

Arbouse Recordings | Musée Fenaille

MELODIUM
Cerebro Spin
ADR071
Audio Dregs 2008
11 Tracks. 50mins40secs

Melodium is too polite.  Laurent Girard, the man behind the moniker, is a master of gentle suggestion and microscopic whisps of mystery.  Girard consistently seems to be asking nicely for an audience, rather than demanding to be heard.  It’s a trite analogy, but like the budding of a rather colorful flower in the middle of a forest, the melodies of Melodium need to be sought out by listeners with patience, an ever-rarer trait in the current musical climate ridden with flash-in-the-blog din.

From the sound of it, Cerebro Spin is an album that was made because Girard had to make it.  If any of these tracks were rushed or frustratingly birthed to fill space, I can’t hear it.  Every piece of this puzzle is significant to Girard in ways that those who don’t know him personally will probably never figure out.  But consider the emotional impact of Cerebro Spin like hearing one side of a telephone conversation: you won’t get the whole picture, but the emotions of the present party are on naked display.  Or, perhaps Melodium’s tender tracks are best approached as Pablo Neruda on poetry – the meaning that the beholder (or listener, in this case) derives for him/herself is more significant and affecting than anything Girard could have outlined in liner notes or lyrics.

One of the pleasant surprises about Cerebro Spin is that Girard is a deft weaver of whichever instruments are at his disposal.  Kissing Disease features what sound like digitally synthesized flutes and horns; normally, this kind of “cheap” sound is difficult to seriously incorporate into music that doesn’t fetishize its stamp of artificial sheen.  Yet, Girard slips them in and out as lead lines, buttressed by his ever-present acoustic guitar in a way that illuminates such cold sounds in a warmer light.  Girard further softens hard percussion noises, such as the jungle-lite groove that pops in and out of Social Phobia, such that drum parts that would be commanding are relegated to an incidental presence, like rain on a windowpane.

There’s a singer-songwriter within Girard, and when he’s allowed out, the effect is an update on classic psychedelic futurists like early David Bowie, or even Donovan.  Girard’s singing teeters a hushed line between vocals and vocalizing.  When, on Vocal Chord Polypus, he repeats a refrain – ‘you can’t touch the bottom / you should go to London’, I don’t know what he’s talking about, but framed by glistening synths and horns, it somehow sounds like good advice.  Not Yet 2 is the most traditional singer-songwriter song of the set, Girard repeating a minor-major resolution with lyrics that paint a picture of soul-searching – ‘you wanted to know yourself’ – slowly overtaken by synth horns.  A beautifully warped take on indie-pop, it’s the best song Badly Drawn Boy never wrote.

As gentle and reassuring as Cerebro Spin can be, there’s a melancholic undercurrent here.  Many of the tracks are titled after diseases and disorders – Social Phobia, Panic Disorder, Kissing Disease.  Closer Scoliosis + Astigmatism has the saddest melody, with a woodwind (either synthesized or played; at this point it becomes hard to tell) weeping on loop and ghostly high-frequency staccato piano plinks overcoming what would otherwise be a triumphantly building drum track.  Perhaps this record is a narrative of imperfections of body and brain, and that cover art does look somewhat like sperm entering a womb.  These minutiae of meaning are, ultimately, left graciously up to the listener – Girard is just too polite.

4/5

Melodium | Audio Dregs
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