Enfer Boreal "adn () dna"

Crier Dans Les Musees

My immediate first impression of “adn () dna” was of its sheer quietness. And I mean this in just about every sense of the word – it is unassuming, subtle, and I had to turn up stereo to hear what was going on. This disc, the latest in a long line of excellent CDRs from French sound artist Maxime Primault, consists of one long piece that begins with hissing tape noise and field recordings before it opens out into the warmth of a slowly chiming guitar. Primault conjures up exquisitely melodic waves of sound from his guitar, often in conjunction with slow drum rolls and bells, creating a palpable sense of the eerie and mysterious.

Throughout, the guitar serves as a motif that anchors the piece, with its ebbing, lilting tones lending the piece a sense of emotional coherency and direction, and providing something stable amongst the highly accidental sounding field recordings that litter the course of the disc. Enfer Boréal manages to balance the understated and intimate, sustained through his use of field recordings and their evocation of crashing waves and howling winds, with highly composed moments almost transcendental in their beauty. There is something ultimately exploratory about this disc. It is as if in the field recordings that underlie the piece, Primault is literally exploring and capturing the sounds of a threatening and mysterious wilderness that is then used as a basis from which to explore the compositional possibilities that explode out of this. As a result the overall sound achieves a remarkable sense of intrepid wonderment at the world that is both intimate and refined. 8/10 -- Tim Gentles (20 May, 2009)

GET IT HERE : myspace.com/crierdanslesmusees

Enfer Boreal-way of the masks (tape drift cd-r)

Figured I'd start the Tape Drift batch with this one from Enfer Boreal, whose stuff I suddenly received a ton of in a super short period of time. Not that I'm complaining. Primault's stuff is totally great and each time out he seems to make a point of not rehashing the same tricks. Perfect example can be found here, as the last review I did of his work was the ultra stark 3" on Centre of Wood. This time out though, Primault gets way fuller and more zoned in no time, as "Le Tomebeau Hindou" starts things out with a quick jaunt through guitar delay drone before slipping into a realm of fritzing electronic harshities and head-knodding undulations. Far more overtly zonked than most of his material, with little of the dreamy vibe I usually associate with his output. Instead this is just 20-minutes of fried and dried fever sleep, albeit with a distinct sense of pace and construction. No matter the sounds used, the approach remains constant, and Boreal's works always have a logical progression throughout, no matter how hellish the vibes may be. Still though, this a pretty thick bath of static wash that serves to cleanse the palette for the white, electrical line hum that catalyzes some expansive excursions later in the track before it once more evaporates into vapor toward the end.

Combined, the other four tracks barely eclipse the length of the first one, which is fine considering the vast reach of the initial blast. "Les Morts Dansaient Avec Nous," the shortest one, is a deep sink hole of goner zones, with bomb threat sirens riding overhead beneath apocalyptic synth moves beneath. Not exactly the pat on the back you expected after the first track, but then again neither is "Le Dixieme Ciel," whose submerged guitar wrangling and vocal barbarism mix with some rusty swingsets to create an eerie vibe made more so by the presence of a fragile beauty just underneath the torment. The closing "Zero Infini" only serves to seal the deal, exploring more of the same bleak streaks of odd metallic grind above tinkling, barely-there high end. The cave dripping circuitry of its mid-section gently moves it toward the delayed guitar work that closes the album, thankfully, on a sunnier side of sorrow. Unexpectedly dark form for this project, and thus further proof that Primault's the real deal. This kind of range means that Primault's always one to watch. Another winner as always from Eric's Tape Drift!