 |
| Artist:
Christian Renou |
| Title:
"Fragments
and Articulations" |
|
Catalog #:
GF023
|
| Series:
II |
| Total
Time: 63'38" |
| Release
Date: September 6, 2002 |
|
reviews
- 01: fragments and articulations
no.1 A short, isolated sequence, taken from a drum part of an URIA performance
(a mutant jazz rock group in which Renou performed) from 1982, was used as
the basic sound source which was then processed with a computer. Final recording,
may 2002.
- 02: fragments and articulations
no.2 Afield recording (Riva-Bella, 1997) has been re-injected into an
old computer with a damaged CYRIX processor which decomposed the sounds into
something much better. Final recording, april 2002.
- 03: fragments and articulations
no.3 Very dirty frequencies, generated by a home-made Galene receiver
were used as the basic sound source and then processed by computer. final
recording, june 2002.
Christian Renou has been making electro-acoustic
music for 17 years. His first cassette release was back in 1985. From 1985 to
2001 he recorded under the name Brume. He then started using his own
name with the release of Zona Ventille in 2001 by Elsie and Jack Recordings.
While the name changed, the style of music did not. Christian Renou is still
putting out very high quality music in the new French tradition. Fragments
and Articulations is no exception.
Discography
-CASSETTES :
Frikture, C-60, BRUME Rec., 1985
Le jour du cochon, C-60, BRUME Rec., 1986
Program T.4, C-60, BRUME Rec., 1986
Exit/No use, C-30, (live), BRUME Rec., 1987
In death we trust!, C-60, UNDERGROUND PROD., 1988
Poison, C-60, R.R. PRODUCT., 1988
Catalogue, C-60, BRUME Rec., 1988
Permafrost, C-60, BRUME Rec., 1988
Tribalités urbaines, 2xC-60, BRUME Rec., 1987/1988
Fuck your sun!, C-60, BRUME Rec., 1988
Climatiseur, C-60, BRUME Rec., 1989
Temporary pigments, C-60, OLD EUROPA CAFE, 1989
Headache, C-45, ORGANIC TAPES, 1989
Accident de chasse, C-60, TONSPUR TAPES, 1989
The sun, C-60, OLD EUROPA CAFE, 1990
Unrelated landscape, C-60, AUDIOFILE TAPES, 1990
Autoportrait, C-50, LA LEGENDE DES VOIX, 1991
TELEPHERIQUE/BRUME, Split C-60, DRAHTFUNK PROD., 1991
Electrocoagulation, C-60, IRRE TAPES, 1991
Schiluuk, C-45, CORROSIVE TAPES, 1991
Emergence, 2xC-60 (Installation soundtrack), OLD EUROPA CAFE, 1991
Epineuse, C-60, DE FABRIEK, 1991
Recifs, C-60, AUDIOFILE TAPES, 1991
Iswari, C-60, SPH, 1991
BOVOSO/BRUME, Split C-60, SPH, 1992
Early/Unreleased tracks, C-60, SPH, 1992
I'm...I come...I was..., C-60, TONSPUR TAPES, 1992
Apocalypse at 6 am, C-60, TAPES FOR MASSES, 1993
Musique pour les êtres humains, C-60, OLD EUROPA CAFE, 1994
N-N-N, C-60, ANACHRONISMUS, 1994
Mammut, C-60, PRION TAPES, 1995
Stable, C-60, BANDAGED HAND PROD., 1995
SUDDAN INFANT/BRUME, Split C-60, SCHIMPFLUCHT, 1995
The emancipated cell at the fire wheel confines, C-90, REALIZATION Rec., 1995
BABIL (BRUME & SYLLYK), C-60, LES NOUVELLES PROPAGANDES, 1995
Drone/Gymnastic, C-30, BANDAGED HAND PROD., 1995
In death we trust!, RE-release NUIT ET BROUILLARD, 1996
The dark tapes, C-60, NUIT ET BRUILLARD, 1996
MARKUS SCHWILL/BRUME, Split C-90, NUIT ET BRUILLARD, 1996
-VINYL :
BRUME/LA NOMENKLATUR, Split LP,
LA LEGENDE DES VOIX, 1989
SUDDEN INFANT/BRUME, Split 7LP, TADPOLE/ANOMALOUS Rec., 1992
BRUME/TELEPHERIQUE, Split LP, MARGINAL TALENT, 1994
BRUME/CONTAGIOUS ORGASM, Split 7EP, ANT-ZEN, 1996
Anastomose, Picture 10EP, ANT-ZEN, 1996
MLEHST/BRUME, Split 7EP, BANDAGED HAND PROD., 1996
Charlemagne, 7EP, MEMBRUM DEBILE PROP., 1997
Brume '1st LP - Starving Vrischika', LP, OLD EUROPA CAFE, Italy, 1999
-CD's :
No-Body, CD, LA LEGENDE DES VOIX,
1991
No-Thing, CD, STAALPLAAT, 1991
BRUME/VRISCHIKA, Split CD, BRUME Rec., 1992
Battery hens sabotage, CD, OLD EUROPA CAFE, 1992
Xeros, CD, STAALPLAAT/KORM PLASTICS, 1993
Permafrost, CD (Bootleg!), ART DIRECT, 1994
Standard, CD, ND, 1994
BRUME/APHASIA, Split CD, ATMOJECT, 1996
Drafts of collisions, CD, CROWD CONTROL ACTIVITIES, 1997
BRUME+NOMUZIC, collaborative CD, CHEESES INTERNATIONAL, 1997
Brume 'Normal', CD, RELAPSE REC., U.S.A., 1999
Brume 'Frameworks', CD, FREEDOM IN A VACUUM, Canada, 1999
Krieg, CD, Intransitive Recordings, U.S.A., 1999
Brume and Toy Bizarre, CD, Staalplaat, Netherlands, ?
Brume/Artificial Memory Trace '1st Encounter', Alien8, Canada, 2001
Erection, 3" CD, Kling Film Rec., Belgium, 2001
as Christian Renou
Zona Ventille, CD, Elsie and Jack Recordings, U.S.A./UK, 2001
Philippe Blanchard/Christian Renou 'play:lunch' CD, Plate Lunch, U.S.A., 2001
Fragments & Articulations CD, Ground Fault Recordings, U.S.A., 2002
REVIEWS
- Christian Renou, as Brume, has
been making quality electroacoustic music since 1985. This CD is a fantastic
set of long pieces demonstrating Renou's considerable skills as a thoughtful
and very entertaining composer. The opening 25-minute track uses as its sound
source a segment of percussion taken from a 1982 performance by Renou's jazz-rock
outfit URIA. Metallic sonorities dominate the opening 8 minutes but slowly
dissolve into a swirling mass of buzzing, shifting sound. The piece moves
slowly and delicately, but the mix is dense and full. The metallic sonorities
occasionally reappear completely transformed but still retain some of their
cymbal-like resonance beneath the layers of digital processing. Around the
13 minute track the whole fades down almost to silence, as a loud electronic
pulse erupts suddenly. The slowed-down metallic sounds flow by endlessly,
disappearing in the distance. The pace begins to quicken as clanging tones
begins to multiply and play at multiple speeds, like a crazed, arrhythmic
gamelan. Though 25 minutes long, the track remains interesting throughout
and might just be the highlight of the disc. The second piece consists of
field recordings mangled by a computer with a faulty processor. The piece
begins with what appear to be recordings of water drips processed into tiny
grainy trebly bits exploding in all directions. The mix slows down, walls
of reverb are erected, sounds rush by at lower speeds. Tones are stretched
out into spacier, serene washes of echoed frequencies interspersed with mysterious
silences. Again, like the first piece this track goes in many directions throughout
its length and is a pretty great and rewarding listen full of detail and well
worth playing multiple times. The opening sequence has a bit of glitchy "digital
error"-like moments but the remainder of the piece is smoother, even
if some hissy and scratchy noises fly in around midway. Towards the end you
do hear a non-processed segment of what sounds like rushing water- perhaps
the originally sound source briefly unveiled, before the totally obliterated
versions of this take us to the quiet fade-out. The final piece is composed
of processed sounds generated by an old AM-radio receiver. After a noisy opening
bit an awesome glitched-up hum explodes loudly and disappears just as quickly.
The track shifts into a blend of quiet subtle delicate glitches, loops and
spaced -out atmospheres which are interrupted frequently by loud explosive
and occasionally distorted blocks on noise that retreat to silence. Pacing
and dynamics are again top-notch. -- Angbase
- Recentely Christian Renou decided
to change his long time monikker from Brume to Christian Renou, his own name.
Maybe one reason might be that on the old Brume releases it always said: no
samplers, no computer and while reading the sparse liner notes to this release,
all of these pieces were processed with a computer. In the opening piece (which
are all called 'Fragments And Articulations') for instance he takes a short
drum part, which will be, over the course of twenty five minutes, entirely
transformed. Somewhere in the beginning the sounds of drumming are to be recognized,
but sometimes there is a thick buzzing sound, forming a clouded drone, which
seems to be hard to relate to the original drum pattern. The second piece
uses only a field recording, which was 're-injected into an old computer with
a damaged Cyrix processor which decomposed the sounds into something much
better'. This piece with it's ongoing sounds and small processings, reminded
me of Renou's other recent work 'Flat' (on Bake Records). It's a kind of ambient
music that is much more forcefull then the regular ambient washes. In the
final piece he uses a 'home-made Galene receiver', producing some very dirty
frequencies (his own words), but in the presented collage form it works fine.
The main question is of course, is there a difference between the old Brume
sound and the recent Renou work? I think there is. The old Brume sound was
always 'loaded' with sound, silence was never a matter; in his recent work,
dynamics seem to be playing a bigger role for him. Things move from loud to
quiet and there is an overall sense of depth in this music, more so, then
in the old Brume work. A good move. (Frans deWaard - Vital Weekly #371)
- There was a doubt when Christian
Renou decided to abandon his moniker Brume to go under his real name.
Would he be able to reinvent himself enough to justify the change? The answer
is a clear yes and he didn¹t take long to prove it. "Fragments and
Articulations" concretizes his transformation from dark ambient post-industrial
figure to downright experimental soundsmith. The album presents three long
works of sound art (between 19 and 25 minutes), each one developed out of
a short sound source. The initial source becomes an excuse to unfold rich
tapestries of articulated sounds and textures, like a magic hat trick. The
first of these three "Fragments and Articulations" opens on a sample
of ride cymbal. A low hum appearing in the back will have you check out the
window to see if the neighbor isn¹t mowing his lawn (a disturbing thing
to hear on a January evening). Drumming is kept in the hot seat throughout
most of the piece, but you hardly notice it as layers of electronic textures
are wrapped around the percussives. The second piece has more of a dark ambient/drone
feel with reminiscences of early musique concrète. Very difficult to
describe, it nevertheless captivates the listener. It has the power to engulf
you whole, like being lost in a cybernetic whale. The third piece uses grittier
sounds, occasionally verging on harsh noise with a finale recalling the early
electronic experiments of Charlemagne Palestine or Jorge Antunes.
This last track seems a bit overstretched, it runs out of ideas, but otherwise
"Fragments and Articulations" is a very satisfying album, especially
when listened to with headphones. - François Couture, All Music
Guide
- At his home base just outside
Paris, Christian Renou's working method is, apparently, to feed pre-existing
material (the first piece was sourced in a percussion solo recorded back in
1982, the second uses field recordings, and the third some "very dirty"
frequencies generated by a homemade instrument) into the computer for processing.
When the computer itself is slightly defective - we're told that the second
piece owes much to a damaged CYRIX processor - the results can be quite intriguing,
but a touch of editing along the way might not have been a bad idea: dense
electronic music is often more easily digested in ten and twelve minute mouthfuls.
Renou, now operating under his own name instead of the moniker Brume, which
he used until recently for a slew of releases in the cassette underground,
is another talented and unjustifiably obscure French electronic composer you're
not likely to have heard of unless you're a diehard noise nut (hats off once
more to GF's Erik Hoffman for releasing this). - Dan
Warburton, Paris Transantlantic