vendredi 3 septembre 2021

VITAL WEEKLY 1298 - Chronique de Frans de Ward

 

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VITAL WEEKLY
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Number 1298
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Week 34
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NICOLAS CLAIR - UN TRUC COME TRUE (cassette by Transcachette Tapes)

The label describes as 'Heavy Experimental Stuff' (not Bandcamp, but on the information I got along with the cassette), and maybe it is my lack of understanding how to interpret 'heavy', but it's not. I had not heard of French musician Nicolas Clair before, and here it is the usual 'no instruments mentioned', but again the press information gives away this, "bowed string objects, InRealLife plug-ins, Cristaline magnums filled Suze and Half-Satanic Sampling", if that makes any sense to anyone. The twelve pieces are collages of sound, that much is (easily!) true, and sampling plays an important role in his work. The sources are heavily obscured here; it could, as far as know, be anything from vinyl, TV/YouTube sources, electronic demonstration records, test records, radio and in a similar approach, I'd say,
Clair works with these samples quite rough. He bounces them around, and before the land, they have changed once again, or something leaps up out of the clear blue sky. Sometimes this is as chaotic as it may sound, but also, strange as it may appear, it is sometimes quite organized. Maybe a self-regulating organization principle that is going on here? Hard to say, but it works quite well. More music from the laptop (see also elsewhere), but in the hands of Nicolas Clair, the approach is less careful. He likes to crack his sounds, rough and elegant, and that brings out a great amount of variation to the music, which never stays too long in the same place. Quite a wild ride, this release, but also quite a lovely one. (FdW)