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cd -- selection APRIL 2006
 
Artist: RAMONA CORDOVA
Title: The boy who floated freely
Label: CLAPPING MUSIC (US)
Format: CD
Price: 15,5 €
Catalog #:  

 
The Boy Who Floated Freely is one of these unique crossovers that create and assemble their own musical forms : neither child music, nor a fairy tale, neither Folk, nor gipsy music, but rather all of it in one. The most striking side of this music is that inhabited by a secret and unfathomable part of the soul. Ramon is neither Ella Jenkins, nor Marc Bolan, neither Joanna Newsom, nor Ivor Cutler, neither José Afonso, nor Robert Wyatt, but shares the same ability to create a world in which no one has ever lived before. Unique. Raw. Recommended.

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Artist: SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE
Title: The Sun Awakens
Label: DRAG CITY
Format: CD
Price: 19,5€
Catalog #: DC 312CD

 
"Listening to The Sun Awakens back-to-back with its predecessor will provoke a different response. There's a few treats, sure. As a matter of fact, it's all treats to our ears. But it's not all happy beans, just so you know. As a matter of fact, it's the darkest Six Organs of Admittance yet. In addition to titling songs cheerless things like 'Black Wall,' and 'Torn by Wolves,' Ben's brought a bit more electric guitar into the mix to help bring out the darkness. Tim Green is behind the board making sure that everything sounds rock-solid, and the acoustics are brilliant, almost blinding. Side one is a six-song circle where waves of guitars build and beauty is betrayed by madness...in the prettiest possible way. Side two is a trip down the droning 'River of Transfiguration.' The inspiration here is Hermann Nitsch. You might hear Popul Vuh as an influence too, as well as Hapshash and the Coloured Coat. Overall though, Six Organs of Admittance doesn't believe in the critical myth that an artist who flirts with the obscure needs to consolidate their experimental tendencies into more and more listenable music in order to expand the envelope of what pop music can be. He don't believe in a linear aesthetic trajectory either."

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Artist: THOMAS MERY
Title: A SHIP, LIKE A GHOST, LIKE A CELL
Label: DORA DOROVITCH
Format: CD
Price: 15,5€
Catalog #:  

 
Pour son premier album solo, le talentueux Thomas Mery, instigateur de certains des projets les plus intéressants de la scène indie française (Purr, Téléfax), a choisi de donner un folk dépouillé et sensible, qu’il crée avec une guitare sèche et un chant à fleur de peau, mettant à nu des bribes d’intimité dans des textes ombrageux. Cependant, s’il en vient à une formule essentiellement acoustique, le musicien a derrière lui plusieurs années de recherche sonore électro-acoustique, comme en témoignait en 2003 le vinyle à tirage limité I Matter. On peut donc supposer que ce disque, composé et produit par Thomas Mery lui-même, est le reflet voulu d’une aspiration à une sobriété et une simplicité que semble porter le souci vibrant d’intimité et d’introspection.
A peine réhaussées de quelques notes de piano ou de mélodica, de quelques sons électroniques, nappes grésillantes ou samples de voix, la musique de A ship, like a ghost, like a cell s’offre sur le ton d’une confidence douloureuse. Juste de voix, elle laisse libre cours aux émotions qui la traversent, sans que nous ne ressentions d’impudeur dans la démarche. On pourrait citer Shaping Places, Real Shift ou The This That, qui trouvent en nous un écho puissant. Mais c’est l’ensemble du disque qui, porté par le chant frémissant de Thomas, au diapason des arpèges retenus ou tendus de sa six-cordes, nous touche profondément.
A ship, like a ghost, like a cell nous aide à nous frayer à pas feutrés un passage parmi les ombres ( Infratunes)
 

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Artist: GROUPER
Title: Way Their Crept
Label: FREE PORCUPINE SOCIETY
Format: CD
Price: 16,5E
Catalog #: FPS 014CD

"Way Their Crept is a beautiful and haunting release of processed vocals, keyboards and guitar recorded by Liz Harris in Oakland, California. Melodic and emotive elements create a complex contrast of grit and grain that Harris shares with fellow Oakland free-noise musicians Tom Carter and Xiu Xiu. Her music parallels the spiritual, meditative bent of guitarist Christina Carter while giving the breezy ambience of Brian Eno and Harold Budd a noisier, more brittle presence. Like an imagined ode to Throbbing Gristle by Arvo Pärt, Way Their Crept sounds like a choir of ghosts recorded a hundred years ago. Doppelgangers, phantoms and black holes emerge from countless layers of tonal and vocal arrangements and weave through the swirling fog of tape hiss and distortion."
 
 
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