PEDRO SOLER & GASPAR CLAUS
Barlande
IF1015
InFiné 2011
08 Tracks. 45mins40secs

Amazon UK: CD US: CD

Barlande is an extraordinary record on many levels, but one of its most fascinating aspects is that it is the meeting of a father, one of the most revered flamenco guitarists alive today, and his son, a cellist who has for most of his career favoured experimenting with other musicians rather than following a formal classical path. The project came out of the first InFiné Summer Workshop, a week-long residency curated by the label in a disused quarry near Poitiers, France, during which a host of artists, from the label as well as guests, are invited to create music on site and perform live each evening, and is released just on time to coincide with this year’s edition. Continue Reading »

ARANDEL
In D Remixed
IF3007
InFiné 2011
09 Tracks. 66mins12secs

Amazon UK: DLD US: DLD Boomkat: DLD iTunes: DLD

Amongst the many excellent records published on Franco-German imprint InFiné last year, one stood out as a particularly original record. The work of enigmatic French DJ and producer Arandel, In D was an electronic record for which the man (this is about as much as we know of who Arandel actually is) had renounced MIDI equipment and samplers, and had instead made extensive use of a vast array of acoustic instruments which he had painstakingly recorded and processed into nine very impressive pieces.

In the next few months, the tracks from In D were handed over to a number of artists for them to offer their vision of Arandel’s music. The results were collected into two digital EPs, which have now been compiled, with additional remixes, into this companion to the original album. Continue Reading »

MURCOF
La Sangre Iluminada
IF1014LP
InFiné 2011
20 Tracks. 39mins52secs

Amazon UK: LP+CD | DLD US: DLD Boomkat: LP+CD | DLD iTunes: DLD

After the vast expanses of Cosmos, La Sangre Iluminada (Enlightened Blood) marks a return to the miniature landscapes and gentle clair-obscur overtones of Remembranza for Murcof. The music was originally conceived as backdrop to the 2007 feature length movie of the same title by Mexican director Iván Ávila Dueñas, and was published a year later on Mexican imprint Intolerancia. For this limited edition version, released on the excellent InFiné on 180g red vinyl and accompanied by a CD, the soundtrack has been re-edited by Murcof himself.

Dueñas’s movie, inspired by the poems of Jose Carlos Becerra, follows six characters who mutate into new bodies but retain traces of their previous lives. The music created by Fernando Corona matches the atmospheric moods of the film and the intentionally slow pace adopted by Dueñas. Continue Reading »

Arandel goes a long way to protect his identity, from performing behind a sheet to posing for publicity shot whilst wearing a mask. With his first album, In D, released last year on InFiné, he aimed to create a techno-infused record using only sounds of real instruments which he had sampled himself. Followed a string of remix digital EPs which are now about to be collected onto an album, due to be released in the coming weeks. Here, he talks about the need to remain anonymous, the challenges of working with real instruments, his influences and what Arandel could be like as a live formation. Continue Reading »

AGORIA
Impermanence
IF1013
InFiné 2011
10 Tracks. 59mins53secs

Amazon UK: CD | LP US: CD iTunes: DLD

Sébastien Devaud is one of the founding members of InFiné, a French imprint which has, since its conception back in 2006, revealed a number of new talents, from classical musicians-come-techno masters Francesco Tristano or Bachar Mar-Khalifé to the quirky electronica of Rone, Arandel and Clara Moto. But Devaud is above all a DJ, musician and producer who has been operating under under the Agoria banner for over ten years.

Following a string of EPs released between 1999 and 2002, Devaud published his first full-length album, Blossom, on PIAS in 2003. The album, and its follow up, The Green Armchair, released three years later, collected electro-infused techno and dance pieces together with occasional post-trip hop moments. Continue Reading »

BACHAR MAR KHALIFE
Oil Slick
IF1011
InFiné 2010
06 Tracks. 48mins24secs

Amazon UK: CD | DLD US: CD | DLD Boomkat: DLD iTunes: DLD

The son of celebrated Lebanese singer and oud player Marcel Khalifé, Bachar Mar Khalifé was born in Beirut in the early eighties, but spent the majority of his formative years in France. He studied at the Boulogne Conservatoire alongside his brother, Rami, where he developed his singular approach to piano and percussions, and went on to graduate from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris while Rami headed off to the prestigious Juilliard School in New York. Later on, Bachar toured with his father for a while and also regularly performed with the Orchestre National De France and Pierre Boulez’s contemporary formation Ensemble Intercontemporain, and also contributed to the live collaborative project of Francesco Tristano, Carl Craig and Moritz Von Oswald. Continue Reading »

The London Jazz Festival programme is known to regularly extend well beyond the realm of jazz, a genre itself subject to wide open interpretation. For its 2010 edition, the festival organisers have invited Mexican electronic artist Murcof to perform at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, on the South Bank, two years on from his LJF debut in the Purcell Room next door, where he performed with Spanish ensemble BCN216.

For this evening’s performance, Murcof rekindled his long-running partnership with Francesco Tristano, began a few years ago when Fernando Corona produced Tristano’s debut solo record, Not For Piano, released in 2007, and which consequently developed into a full live collaboration. Continue Reading »

FRANCESCO TRISTANO
Idiosynkrasia
IF1012
InFiné 2010
09 Tracks. 66mins49secs

Amazon UK: CD US: CD Boomkat: DLD iTunes: DLD

A very talented young musician (he was born in 1981), Francesco Tristano Schlimé, to give his full name, moved to New York in 2000 to study at the prestigious Juilliard School, then went on to perform with the Russian National Orchestra. Tristano specialises in Baroque music and founded The New Bach Players ensemble in 2001, with whom he has recorded a number of classical works since. But, while in New York, Tristano also found a love for much more contemporary forms of music, even leading him to regularly deejay at various clubs in the city. Once back in Europe, he brought his love of classical music and techno together by developing a very personal style, which resulted in his non-classical debut album, Not For Piano, released in 2007 on the then fledging InFiné imprint, on which he revisited a number of electronic classics, including Rhythim Is Rhythim’s Strings Of Life, Jeff Mills’s The Bells or Autechre’s Overand, on the piano. With his follow up, Auricle Bio On, produced by Moritz Von Oswald, released a year later, Tristano created a very different piece of work, centered around two progressive and complex pieces set somewhere between musique concrète, minimal composition, abstract jazz and minimal techno. Beside his solo work, Tristano is also a member of Aufgang, a project formed with fellow Juilliard student and pianist Rami Khalifé and drummer Aymeric Westrich. The trio released their self-titled debut album last year.

Recorded in Carl Craig’s Planet E studios in Detroit, Idiosynkrasia is a more straightforward and accessible affair than its predecessor. Continue Reading »

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. Continue Reading »

CLARA MOTO
Polyamour
IF1008
InFiné 2010
11 Tracks. 54mins54secs

Amazon UK: CD | DLD US: CD | DLD

In the four years since its inception, Franco-German imprint In-Finé has made a tangible mark somewhere between dance-floor and lounge, with excellent releases from Francisco Tristano, Rone, Apparat or Aufgang demonstrating the eclectic yet focussed vision of label head Sebastien Devaud. Perfect embodiment of this ethic is Austrian artist Clara ‘Moto’ Prettenhofer, whose debut album swerves elegantly between the two, often blending fluid grooves and celestial atmospherics into infinite combinations, some leaning towards minimal tech-house, brightened up with pretty strong melodies and a hefty dose of human emotions, others resolutely more haunting and, occasionally ambient. This is no insipid coffee-table tosh though. All throughout the record, Clara creates stunning little electronic vignettes which, while often very different, undeniably stem from a singular clear vision. Continue Reading »

AUFGANG
Aufgang
IF1006
InFiné 2009
09 Tracks. 60mins07secs

iTunes: DLD

Aufgang is a formation like no other. Formed of classically trained pianists Rami Khalifé and Francesco Tristano, who met ten years ago while they were studying at the world-renowned Julliard School in New York, who, beside sharing a common interest in their study, also enjoyed the club scene that the city had to offer, and drummer Aymeric Westrich, also a classically trained musician who studied percussions at the Conservatoire de Boulogne in France, Aufgang became a proper entity in 2005 when they played at the Sonar festival in Barcelona. It took a further four years for the trio to record together and document their unusual sound, resulting in a debut EP, entitled Sonar, released earlier this year on French imprint InFiné, and now followed by their self-titled debut album. Continue Reading »

RONE
Spanish Breakfast
IF1005
InFiné 2009
10 Tracks. 41mins45secs

Rone’s debut album is of a surprisingly sunny disposition for an electronic record, especially one that owes a fair amount to Detroit techno. The fruit of the imagination of French musician and sound designer Erwan Castex, who beside this project, regularly produces music for exhibitions and adverts, Spanish Breakfast offers a somewhat playful and dreamy soundtrack, drenched in gentle melodies and cinematic grooves designed as much for overnight consumption as for chilled summery Sunday mornings. Continue Reading »