a r t i s t : Greg Davis and Sebastien Roux
t i t l e : Merveilles
d a t e : 2008
l a b e l : Ahornfelder
g e n r e : Avantgarde
r l s. d a t e : Aug/2008
t r a c k s : 05
b i t r a t e : VBRkbps
s i z e : 77,4 MB
_______________________________________________________________________
Greg Davis and SΘbastien Roux are back with their second
collaborative album following the acclaimed release ôPaquet
surpriseö. ôMerveillesö, translated from the French word as
wonderland, describes the album very fitting as the songs have
a very illustrative quality. Where the previous album relied a
bit more on sweet melodies and quick changes ôMerveillesö
explores different sound worlds in depth and illuminates a
terrain of diverse emotional scenarios. Silent passages of
field recordings are combined with subtle harmonic layers,
interrupted by sudden noise eruptions and contrasted by folk
like guitar melodies and very concrete sounds, often leaving
the listener wondering what the origin of this tone might be.
It is a pleasure to have a documentary of this interesting
collaboration in which both musicians are able to realise
their grown individual expertise. SΘbastien Roux, working at
the IRCAM and well known for his success in continuing the
French line of music concrΦte in a new and contemporary way,
clearly helps to establish the abstract narrative form of this
record with arrangements of cut and edited pieces of concrete
recordings. The influence of Greg Davis, often described as
the anchor figure in the forming of the laptop folk scene, is
clearly audible in melodic guitar lines and the construction
of dense harmonic drones. But the strength of this
collaboration is the fact that Greg Davis and SΘbastien Roux
combine their musical ideas creating a very unique approach of
their own. This record clearly combines elements of serious
and popular music in a highly thoughtful and contemporary way,
widening the edges of by now established stylistic fields that
Davis and Roux once helped to define.
ôMerveillesö consists of edits of live recordings made during
a tour through Europe and the US in 2005 - it is the pleasant
proof that electronic music of such richness in detail can be
played and composed live.
_______________________________________________________________________
01-Geneva [00:57]
02-London [11:01]
03-San Francisco [11:46]
04-Eugene [13:44]
05-Aalst [17:12]
-------
54:40 min