Various Artists - 33 RPM: Ten Hours of Sound From France
(23five)
In the fourth of an impressive series of exhibitions by the San Fransisco MOMA, French theremenist Laurent Dailleau selected ten hours worth of experimental French music. Ten one-hour compilations of the music were rotated in the museum’s theater, spanning Pierre Schaeffer’s earliest experiments with what would become musique concrète in 1948 to more contemporary works by the likes of Lionel Marchetti, erikm, and pizMO. Dallieau’s program leans heavily upon more recent works, and the twelve tracks on this compact disc are all products of recent years work. Still, the ten artists on the album (Jean-Claude Risset gets three tracks) represent a fairly even selection from the ten segments of Dailleau’s exhibition roster, divided by era, instrumentation, and/or philosophical bent. Excluded are the more canonical works of Schaffer and Luc Ferrari, and the more rock-influenced variations on electronic music offered by the likes of Heldon, Art Zoyd, and Métal Urbain, but the artists that Dailleau does include do provide some diversity within the realm of electronic experimentalism. An abstract austerity bridges the disc, from Marchetti’s slowly growing fusion of arcing whines and sampled acoustic instruments, to the gritty static of “Gris Épais” by Jean-Phillipe Gross. Mimetic, otherwise known as Jéreom Soudan, provides the disc’s only track reliant on explicit beats with the clean, stylized IDM of “Evolution.” The visceral energy of Kasper T. Toeplitz’s “Purr#2,” which begins as a furious maelstrom but fades into atmospheric ambience, is an anomaly, though the rest of 33RPM isn’t devoid of pathos. Kristoff K. Roll’s many contributions to the project are represented by “Zócalo Masqué,” in which squeaks and squeals flirt with a tribal African field recording. Jean-Claude Risset, who pioneered digital synthesis in France, presents a work in three parts, but as the disc’s most noted performer, he doesn’t obscure the music of his younger compatriots. “It was too Dark to Hear Anything,” performed by Dailleau himself, is another highlight, a slowly shifting stream of ambient whisper and whine.
Most likely, 33RPM is replete with name sand music unfamiliar to all but the most industrious student of the electronic French avant garde, and while the disc may not include some of the more seminal pieces included in the MOMA’s exhibit, it does offer a look into modern French music that, at least on the side of the world, hasn’t been easy to gain, until now. This means, of course, that further research will be required for full immersion, but 33RPM is a more than adequate start.
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