PadraigC
The rush of air, blown wind,
interiors of instruments -
I love the energy which flows through this release.
Hard to pick a favourite track.
Favorite track: A1. L'allégorie de la carcasse.
Cat.#: ROHS!-TP04
Release date: 18/3/2022
Format: Cassette, Digital
"One day, my piano (a nice upright Feurich made in Langlau in 1984) was opened because the hammers had to be repaired.
The strings were visible and the cylinder was removed.
Like this, the piano looked like a boneless animal with his skin removed.
Like the Beef Skinned from Soutine, or an anatomic picture from Vesale.
I started tapping on the strings, on the wood case, scratching the keys and the strings, to bring life back to this carcass.
It was the beginning of the first track, L’allégorie de la Carcasse.
This album is like a reconquest of the keyboards and a tribute as well.
Synthesizers, piano, pump organ and even the computer keyboard, are the principal source of the tracks.
I tried to keep a pleasure of playing, of improvising, in the spirit of jazz music which I love.
I used other instruments and objects, like shakuhachi and turntable.
However, the composition process needs to go back and forth between instruments and computer, analogic and digital, improvisation and editing.
Sometimes, the computer and the machines makes you do things that you didn’t expect.
It’s the life of the music and the creation.
And it’s the dimension that I want to keep with Véhicule: not a dogmatic way of composing, but just a journey, always surprising, in the sounds.."
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At the heart of Véhicule, the solo project of French stage music composer Sylvain Milliot, is a will to combine acoustic instruments with sampler, synthesizer and computer sounds, in a kind of nature-vs-culture juxtaposition where dialog and balance are more important than sound processing and studio trickeries. Each of the 6 tracks on Grand Dentelé—something like 'giant cogwheel'—pairs instrumental parts performed on piano, some other acoustic instrument, synthesizer or computer, on the one hand, with instrument samples, electronic sounds and occasional found sounds, on the other. Sampled or live, a disused upright piano recurs throughout the album, using differents parts of the instrument—wooden body, keys and strings. Also heard are a pump organ, a shakuhachi flute, electric organ and found sounds from records. The music moves from ca1950s inside the piano explorations to improvised music to light jazz touches on the electric organ ala Herbie Hancock. The best moments happen when those influences vanish and new, unexpected sounds occur, like in the sublime closing track Vishnu's Remorse, featuring the most otherworldly music of the album—and definitely a must hear.
(Review by Laurent Fairon)
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Chaque jour, les musiques semblent fusionner un peu plus les unes avec les autres, faisant naitre des formes hybrides aux allures de chimères, croisements improbables aux origines diverses et variées, à l’image du nouvel album, Grand Dentelé, de Sylvain Milliot aka Véhicule.
Dès son premier album, Le Temps du Chien, Véhicule bousculait l’ordre des choses, élaborait un monde instable et en tensions. Avec Grand Dentelé, le piano se voit éviscéré et autopsié, les marteaux et les cordes, frappées ou jouées, s’enrobent de sonorités éparses, basculant sans cesse dans un vide déséquilibré retombant toujours sur ses pattes.
A La croisée du jazz et de l’électroacoustique, du contemporain et de l’expérimental, Grand Dentelé épate avec sa dynamique viscérale, étalant ses mélodies à travers les interstices de chaos onirique.
Sylvain Milliot magnifie la fragilité pour la rendre plus forte, faisant d’elle une source de lumière tremblante aux sursauts hantés. La mélancoloie côtoie avec malice, les rebonds de la légèreté insouciante. Les contraires s’unissent et se renforcent, formant une oeuvre labyrinthique à la beauté éblouissante. Vital.
(Review by Roland Torres)
credits
released March 18, 2022
Music: Sylvain Milliot
Mastered by: Andrea Porcu
Record label: Lᴏɴᴛᴀɴᴏ Series
Publisher: ROHS! RECORDS
Brilliant exploration in minimalism. The drone and spread make this a great album to come back to and reflect on openings in ourselves and the world we exist in. L.N. Quinn
Inspired by the Welsh notion of “cynefin,” which is thematically similar to the LP’s title, “Notes on Belonging” is both warm and wistful. Bandcamp New & Notable Oct 16, 2017