When I sometimes write that people like Bruno Duplant (or Celer or Machinefabriek) appear almost every week in Vital Weekly, I am doing this in a loving and joking way. I like their music, and there’s an abundance out there, so what’s not to enjoy? I say this fully, realising I’m not the one buying all this work. My ‘difficulty’ is finding different approaches to writing about their music. That’s not to say their work is the same all the time, even when the devil is in the details. Duplant’s work, so he claims, is intended to be narrative and fictional, in the same way he approaches his photography, often used as covers on his releases. Other keywords are ‘phantasmagorical’, ‘ancestral’ and ‘secret universe’, or ‘how to make the music a bit mysterious’. He uses organ, double bass, percussion, electronics and field recordings. In some way, I am unsure how (analogue treatment? digital? combination of both?), and he finds a minor different approach every time. In listening to the ghosts, as the translation of his new CD could read, I think Duplant chooses a more fragmented approach to his sounds. They appear like ghosts in the wind and mist, popping out of the shadows and disappearing simultaneously. It’s tough to recognise any of the instruments, not because they have been cut to short length, but because they have been rendered and processed in such a way that they don’t sound like a double bass or organ or percussion; they are residue’s of that, ghostly appearances, if you will. Significantly, when suddenly, voices drop in. As with many of his releases, there are two pieces, almost 23 minutes each (intended for a cassette release? I am guessing here), and both are similar approaches in composition and processing techniques. It’s an album in two parts rather than two pieces. In a way, it’s all very electronic music, ando dipping into the world of modern composition, but with that additional weirdness. It’s another excellent album! (FdW)
via Vital Weekly