ARTIST...: MKS
TITLE....: Musical Keyboard System
YEAR.....: 2021
LABEL....: STROOM
CAT.NO...: STREP-041
GENRE....: Electronic
TIME.....: 21:27
SIZE.....: 44.25 MB
QUALITY..: 288kbps/44.1kHz/Joint Stereo
ENCODER..: LAME
SOURCE...: WEB
RLS.DATE.: 2021/07/27
WEBSITE..: https://stroomtv.bandcamp.com/album/musical-keyboard-system
TRACKLIST
01) (05:08) The New Age Of House
02) (04:18) Twilight Zone
03) (04:09) Figure
04) (02:36) The Dream
05) (05:16) NAM Revelation
Sometimes in life, a certain incentive is needed to convert talent into productivity.
As for the case of MKS, the enigmatic and musical disguise of Nicolas Aubard, it was
a merely coincidental encounter at the end of the 80s that set the stone rolling. For
Nico, it all began in his hometown of Saint-Quentin in Northern France. At a young
age, he got obsessed with Japanese and American cartoon culture. Being a devoted
collector of cartoon-related toys and widgets, he spent hours watching anime series
on TV and creating scale models of science fiction and horror-related sceneries.
Growing up in a musical household, young Nico took on stringent training in classical
and jazz piano. But, frustrated with the fact of not being the technical virtuoso he
wanted to be, he turned away from his training at the age of 16. ôI had no choice, as
I felt as if my creativity got limited by my piano. ThatÆs when I got drawn into the
world of synthesizers.ö Not long after, Nico put together a home studio and started
to experiment with ambience and sound-inserts. Despite years of experimentation and
music making, all NicoÆs productions stayed between the 4 walls of his modest home
studio. Something that would change in 1988, when Nico bumped into Emmanuel ôManuö
Prevost.
ôWe met on a night out in Lilleö, Nico recalls. ôI usually just stood by the dj
booth, as I wasnÆt a good dancer. So instead of throwing shapes at the dancefloor, I
started a conversation with the dj, who happened to be Manu. By the end of the night,
I handed him a demo tape of the album I was wanting to do.ö Propelled by good fate, a
fruitful collab happened between Nico and this dj. For Manu, everything also fell in
place: ôAt the time, I was looking for a composer to work on producing a new beat
record. As a dj, I often crossed the Belgian border for gigs and this new style was
in full explosion over there. I heard NicoÆs songs and naively told him: ôLetÆs make
an albumö, without knowing how.ö Despite the high hopes for the new alliance, the
project turned out to be a shot in the dark. ôI assumed Manu already had some
experience, as he proposed to do the mastering himself. But funnily he only told me
after the release of the record that it was his first time too. But you know, we
managed.ö Not willing to release under his own name, Nico came up with Musical
Keyboard System, abbreviated as MKS. The alias was born and the journey ready to take
off.
The album finally released in September 1989. After the release, Nico went on a low-
key promo tour together with Manu in Northern France. ôWe aired a video clip on FR3
for two songs, together with a short interview. In their studio, we created a scrimpy
dΘcor with some green plants to resemble the Vietnam jungle (as for the track Nam
Revelation) and we shot the clip. Manu even lay down behind a screen operating the
fog machine.ö As a live act, MKSÆ career was rather short-lived, with a first and
final gig in the Theatre of Saint-Quentin a few months after the release. ôIn France,
we would remain illustrious strangers. Yet in the meantime, our music got played on
new age radios in the USA.ö After the end of MKS, Nico moved to Paris and Manu took
on his military duty. In the army, Manu met movie animator Jacques Rouxel (the man
behind French cult series Les Shadoks) and got him in touch with Nico. The duo
collaborated with Rouxel on some compositions, before they went their separate ways
at last. Nico went on to pursue his childhood dream, as a pioneer in France for
integrating 3D animations into classical cartoons. Manu in turn became a producer for
feature films.
Released July 1, 2021
All music composed, arranged and performed by Nicolas Aubard
Mixed and produced by Emmanuel Prevost for MKS Production
Master and publishing by PONEY CLUB PUBLISHING ⌐
Remastered by Mathieu Savenay
Linernotes by Felix PoffΘ
Artwork by Victor Verhelst
Thanks to Victor De Roo & Ziggy Devriendt
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