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JOHN POUBELLE - PLÉISTOCÈNE SUPÉRIEUR

"Plèistocène supérieur" was recorded by John Poubelle (aka Louise Burgers) in the twilight and solitude of her home studio. Composed, played and recorded all by herself, the album infuses a feeling of raw and beautiful imperfection, as if Louise was actually singing directly into the ears of the listeners.

The sounds of "Plèistocène supérieur" seem to come from a place far away in time and space, form an intense and deep inner exploration. Different pieces of Louise inner self are taken out, transformed in sounds and put on the surgical table: acid tones, angelic vocals, fierce thuds, 80s organs, evocative reverbs, playful beats all become instruments to create a diverse yet coherent album with shorter atmospheric tracks alternating with longer contemplative ones.

The haunting disctinct vocal that permeates the album sinks into reverbs and echoes, plotting to create a sort of personal interpretation of sacred music, an imaginary church playing for Louise and for whoever is willing to listen. And it's Nico's piercing plaint that comes to mind, with all the disaffection and profundity going with that.

“The moments where churchy modal scales drift beneath Poubelle’s voice, recalling Nico at her most monochrome and terrifying, underscore that particular combination of vulnerability and bluster that comes together in Christian music: puny humans using reverberation and vaulted roofs to amplify our worship, in the hope that someone up there can hear us” - The Wire

“Amorphously combining the beatific Lutheran morose of Nico with diaphanous choral arias of the atavistic Catholic Church, Louise Burger’s debut cassette tape and digital album for the label invokes a transmogrified vision of holy music for the 21st century” - Monolith Cocktail

“Electrified, copper waves beat at regular intervals against imaginary metal panels, a dark roar makes an echoing underworld shake, and at some point a ghostly soprano fluttering through this Hades is absorbed by space and echoes as a chorale.” - African paper


VALENTINA MAGALETTI & MARLENE RIBEIRO - DUE  MATTE

"Due matte" is the fruit of Valentina Magaletti and Marlene Ribeiro's artistic residency at Sonoscopia, Porto in May 2019.

The two artists were invited to contribute to "Hysteria", a project curated by Francisca Marques that offer a look at female production and creation in today's musical universe, creating new bridges between creators and audiences.

As the two women artists met to get familiar with the space and the resources offerd, they recorded a few original pieces, developing a brand new musical language where simplicity and complexity create an original way of interacting without interrupting the sonic narrative that informs the compositions.

A music exercise in "tropical concrete", the tracks in "Due Matte" have the freedom to go nowhere relying on the immediacy of the chance.

An interaction game between styles and sounds, playful and solemn at the same time, mesmeric in its echoes of distant landscapes and enveloping in its spatiality.

As in a cycle of artistic imagination where sounds are skillfully added and removed to entice us to an adventure in time and space, this visionary album leads our bodies into exciting dances and our minds into contemplative moments. Snakecharmers sweetly whisper unfumiliar things to our ears while we wander in an unconventional realm of sound "at the end of our earthly existence".

“A record that’s happy to lurk at the periphery of your awareness, transmitting gentle bumps and shivers of bells and percussion which occasionally lock into hypnotic grooves” - The Wire

There is some absolute magic in Due Matte” - Fuzzy Sun

 

“In light of (troubling) current events, I found myself imagining that the hypnotic Due Matte captured the very essence of the world circa 2020. In that context, the percussion instruments at the center of almost every track represented the forward motion of time, with the accompanying wide array of fluttering, sputtering, lurching, creaking, and even pleasant tonal elements seeming to reflect the elements of chaos that seem to all the more frequently intrude on modern life and society - as well as the moments of genuine beauty that motivate us all to keep on carrying on in the face of struggle and hardship.” - Scene point blank


YUKO ARAKI - II

With "II", Yuko Araki delivers an album of multifaceted noise fused synthscapes mixing pulsating rhythmic sound frequencies and powerful synthetic sonic layers.

Her exceptional sensibility in processing extremely heavy and dense sounds makes the result sounding like nothing else you heard before: a thousand leaves oscillation sound at the same time rooted in Japanese noise but also totally different.

Intergalactic noisescapes.

"II is made up of five incredible tracks that create an intense soundscape. It's a great synaptic ride" - Echoes and Dust

"The thing that struck me the most about Yuko Araki's work on II was how ambient textures are featured as prominently as the more extreme noise elements. Its hypnotic and mysterious vibe makes the album more approachable than many Japanoise albums whose sole purpose seems to be eardrum abuse" - Scene Point Blank

"A maximalism cathedral, ruled by a noise priestess" - Zero


MOTHER

Influenced by the musician troublesome existence, the four pieces of this Mother’s album are part of a very specific mood that frame it in a well-defined territory.

Recorded live at home, Mother uses field recordings and whatever he can find (guitar, organ, improvised objects as percussion) to express a personal urgency that conveys a feeling of claustrophobic stasis that persists even if continuously broken into.
For this no titled album, Mother physically rumples the tape to get a stretched and slowed down voice transforming his songs into an unrelenting and perverted trip hip hop noise outcome, where unintelligible lyrics mingle with twisted beats. A deep sweet and sour darkness in form of perverted songs as if in a collaboration between William Burroughs and Martin Rev that leave the listener with the feeling of floundering in the mud but still floating.

This album is a goodbye before a metamorphosis/exile. A sort of exorcism, an offering to the winner and to the defeated, prelude and prologue at the same time.

"What matters in the end is that Mother reminds us that in spite of all the gentrification attempts, the polishing and the attention to the urban renewal, the dark, esoteric and post industrial soul of Turin is always there, ready to be sung about by whoever is capable of consorting with it" - Sodapop

"This is not an album that relies on combative intrusion but rather abstract introspection. Mother finds a very dark place where he can buikd his nest... making this debut an overall horryfying experience" - Invisible Oranges

"Mother conveys a sense of claustrophobic stasis... and yet the always slightly chaotic and dadaistic sound material is often entertaining and surprisingly colorful" - African Paper