Release Notes
Label: NAHAL Recordings
Release: A Geography Of Absence
Date: June 18, 2021
I’ve got another delicious treat for you this morning courtesy of NAHAL Recordings. If you’re still not familiar with this French label, curated and operated by Frédéric D. Oberland and Paul Régimbeau, allow me to remind you of the duo’s very own project, FOUDRE! for which I have run this track premiere of “Black Swan Theory I“, as well as this “Chimères (pour ondes Martenot)” from Christine Ott, and Oberland’s “E Quindi Uscimmo A Riveder Le Stelle“. Right… So you can say that I’m a fan… Today we’re introduced to Matthias Puech, who previously released with Hands in the Dark, Hisolat, and Obsolete Future, migrating over to NAHAL for his latest exploration of emptiness, an album, appropriately titled, A Geography Of Absence, “sketching cartography of the invisible, as introspective as unpredictable, in a unique sensory whirlwind.” At the heart of this composition are two Eurorack modules made by 4ms – the Ensemble Oscillator, which features Phase Modulation and Wave-Shaping alongside its FM and Additive Synthesis functions; and a Tapographic Delay, manipulating audio into “complex rhythmic structures, meshes of organic textures, and lush harmonic mille-feuilles.” The sound is raw, dark, and full of disquiet, raising the goosebumps along tepid flesh. Slowly guiding you down the empty corridors of lost and forgotten, Puech revives all your senses and enticing for more. Today I am featuring the opening track to his seven-piece LP, hoping to get you excited…
A researcher in theoretical computer science and an engineer at GRM, Matthias Puech constructs a dialogue between synthetic music and field recording, capturing sounds that surround him and creating his own sonic language with the help of synthesizers he designs and develops. Playing with time, space and matter in an approach similar to that of musique concrète, Matthias Puech combines ambient and noise, floating sounds and electroacoustic experimentations, thus shaking up our listening perspective, which finds itself walking through a parallel universe, strata after strata, sequence after sequence.
A wonderful exploration of deep textures, reminding us, once again, that “modular” doesn’t always mean bleeps and bloops. So, if like me, you are a fan of this growing format, do challenge yourself to construct otherworldly space, and simply rely on it as a tool in your arsenal. And yeah, set your clickers ready for the full-length release on June 18th! You will not be disappointed.
