| Artist: Eric Cordier |
| Title: "Digitalis Purpurea" |
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Catalog #: GF025 |
| Series: I |
| Total Time: 51'05" |
| Release Date: April 14, 2003 |
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01: digitalis purpurea ..... 15'15"
02: dactyle aglomérée ..... 10'42"
03: les os longs ..... 15'32"
04: postface ..... 9'30"
- The title track begins as a barely audible background tone is interrupted by sudden tape-mangled explosions. The piece develops and builds into a deep shimmering drone- I found myself captivated by Cordier's subtle layering of hurdy gurdy and church organ sound textures bathed in thick reverb and transformed into floating helicopter-like sounds fading in and out of the stereo field. At around the 12 minute mark the piece shifts gear and throws in some crazed variable speed tape games and Doppler effects that sound like a fleet of hurdy gurdys storming through a raceway. Things begin to slow down and fade away into silence as the piece comes to a somewhat sudden close. Track two, "dactyle aglomeree" uses a dulcimer as its sound source and features an opening of crazed multi-tracked string sawing and some nice stereo effects. The sounds grow higher in pitch, into something that resembles feedback squeals. Slowly the sounds begin to morph into a swarming mass of hiss that builds in volume and intensity until the string sounds are inaudible. This hiss begins to oscillate wildly as the composition's pace slows down and fades to end. Sound source is field recordings on the third piece, "les os longs"- This piece appears to be very digitally transformed. Spacey and grainy, high pitched noises with some deep bass tones floating in the background. Around the 4-minute mark some creaks and stretched out horn-like tones appear which might be location recordings. The piece remains mysterious and impenetrable throughout. Sounds slow down for the piece's second half, foghorns in the distance, slowly wavering tones that rise and fall slowly in pitch. This portion on the track might be the best thing on here. The disc ending "postface" is made up of church organ sounds- a note in the booklet says: "no tape manipulation". This beautiful piece plays almost like a cross between thoughtful improv and a field recording of someone tuning a church organ- complete with glacially paced awkward pauses and randomly placed, gentle slivers of sound. All of these tape pieces were originally performed as sound environments through multiple speakers at venues ranging from a gallery to a factory tower. The idea of sitting through just one of those events is mouth-watering, but since that is not an option this recording is the next best thing. -- Angbase
- Sourced from recordings of multiple-loudspeaker installations in northern France between 1993 and 1997, "Digitalis Purpurea" is Eric Cordier's second outing for Ground Fault (he also forms part of the group Afflux with GF regulars Jean-Luc Guionnet and Eric La Casa). Original sound material for Cordier's works is culled from church organs, dulcimers and hurdy gurdy - he's one of the few practitioners of the instrument worth listening to (check out the trio Schams) - imparting a rich stringy texture to the sounds, which are then stacked up into dense but not impenetrable structures (cf both the title track and "Dactyle Aglomérée"). "Les Os Longs" is more varied in texture, originating as it does in diverse field recordings - though unlike his friend and colleague La Casa, Cordier goes to great pains to disguise the sources - and the final "Postface" ("no tape manipulation", the composer stipulates) is a weeping draughty smear of pipe organ. The same instrument, by the way, features on Cordier and Guionnet's "Tore" (Shambala 004), being the result of a particularly fruitful collaboration between the two composers and La Grande Fabrique in Dieppe, which also yielded Cordier's first solo album "Houlque". - Dan Warburton, Paris Transantlantic
- Eric Cordier is an unlikely player of the hurdy gurdy (introducing the instrument to Jim O'Rourke and Keiji Haino) and was involved in such bands as The Grief, UNACD, Schams, Phéromone, Tore and Enkidu, most of these operating in the realms of improvised music. On this new release he documents four pieces which were made for different sound installations, the oldest dates back to 1993, that is when it was made. Some installations are still being built up by him and some of them consist of hundreds of speakers. It's of course not easy to translate that back to a stereo mix that I am now hearing. It's like hearing a soundtrack without watching the film. But in these four pieces things work well for the home consumer. There is a delicacy over the sounds Cordier uses, which are not dissimilar to people like Richard Chartier, Roel Meelkop or Bernard Gunter. Sometimes Cordier slips into something that is barely audible - mainly in the opening piece - but it's not one of those releases where one has to crank the volume all the way up. None of the sound sources mentioned on the cover, hurdy gurdy, church organ or field recordings, are easily to be recognized. It's interesting to see that all of these pieces were recorded between 1992 and 1997, but sound very much like things that went on after that - see the aforementioned trio, whose ultra dynamic work is of a later date. Cordier's disc is a great example, and may he join the ranks of Gunter et al. - Frans DeWaard, Vital Weekly
- New Eric Cordier's opus available in the series I (quiet) of the Groundfault label. Acoustic instrumentation (hurdy-gurdy, pipe organ, dulcimer) and field recording, founded in electronics treatment (as we can speak about a metallurgic cast). Some references as Coil or Organum appears in the colour given to the recording, and the oppressive mood that emitted of it. These compositions were previously done for sound environments, installation of loudspeakers in-situ, ritual or passing musics, from the bottom to the high, from left to right. We heard in walking, but the walkman is reversed. Cordier¹s universe is very far from Charlemagne Palestine's one, even is they share a same will of minimalism, similar taste for stretched textures and dense!!!!, the use of electronic don¹t induce the physical exhaustion of the musician, the tension is kept without tiredness, the stake is somewhere else. Whatever "digitalis purpurea" is music carrying an organic aspect, it concerns also the body, listening and acting organ. It involves the space like the backwash, waves roll on themselves, immersing the listener. The first track, eponymous is absolutely full of holes, sucking up energies, in the way of breathing, freaky and asymmetrical pulsations, the propeller figure come to our mind, the ascension in the whirling sound of the hurdy-gurdy and the blow of the pipe organ, speed vibrations of details, moving of the grains and of the breaths, but the music seems to be motionless. The piece for dulcimer (it could be truer to say 'with', so much Cordier¹s way of playing is out of the folklore) is in an obstinate repetition of the motif, but with delicacy, almost sensuality, music played for motionless travellers, the whom who loose her selves in dreams. The two other musics, deal with the same antiphony, the same movement slow and heavy. The use of electronic is not here as for a lot of others musicians a mask, which hide the musical talk, affirmation of a tool becoming an aim, but a prism to look the strange dance of the sounds and to organised them. -- Michel HENRITZI (translated by E. Cordier)
Remark by Eric Cordier : there are no electronic treatments in this CD, only tape manipulation (vary-speed) and mixing so it can perhaps explain Michel Henritzi's strange feeling.
Digitalis Purpurea is the twin of Houlque released on Grande Fabrique (Dieppe -F) in 1996. It's tape music composed for sound environments. Between 1989 and 1997, I built approximately twenty sound environments with hundreds of loudspeakers. The installation is still unchanged after all these years : Each loudspeaker is mounted on a wall at the average height of an ear. The loudspeakers are spaced 50cm between each other. What has changed is the place, the space, the rooms where they have been exhibited. These environments were built with the idea to submerge the listener, by the quantity of the loudspeakers. The music has been composed in 8 tracks to spacialize the sound. One track is sent to 5 neighboring loudspeakers. If possible, 4 tracks are on the left and four others on the right, and so, one track can be found in one of every 20 loudspeakers. However, each loudspeaker is a different type, brand, quality and impedance, so the same track send to various groups of loudspeakers don¹t produce the same resulting sound. A group of 5 neighboring loudspeakers receiving the same electric flux, the sound was different by the function of the impedance and the state of the loudspeaker. Even if the music was built in 8 tracks, the experience was giving the impression of a sound different on each loudspeaker. Knowing that, the music has been built to explore sound mass phenomenon, mass music or quiet and continuous sound (as track 4) to hear the variations. An excess of very low frequencies (track 1) or of high frequencies (track 2) are used to push the loudspeakers to their limits. Both tittles of the CDs in addition to most of the names of the tracks are names of plants because there is a similarity between what happens between the loudspeakers and how the plants interact in nature. A long time ago I used to study archaeology, especially experimental archaeology. We tried to build new methonds of finding remains without digging; just watching the ground and the plants. This is the reason why I have studied the interaction between plants. They grow in groups of different species relating to the nature of the ground. So while doing this kind of archaeology I've spent many days with friends walking in a big forest trying to read the vegetation and the ground. Several years after I began to build these sound environments. The similarities were obvious. The connection of the loudspeakers were creating clusters, but creating variations in function of the kind of matter where was spread on the loudspeakers. The resulting sound was not the same with a loudspeakers spread on concrete, wood, metal or glass. Little by little, in these sound environments the music has disappeared to let place to these resulting sound, but that is another story and will be shown on another record soon to be available on Edition... Eric Cordier
Biography
Eric Cordier has studied fine arts, body-art & music. He began body-art performances/tape music between 1986 and 1994 under the name of Nadir, with Jean Luc Guionnet and Cécile Maupoux (21 performances in France, Germany and Nederland). Actually this work is done in duet with Cédric Peyronnet/Toy bizarre under the name of La Compagnie Pordurière. He was a sound engineer on the Industrial-EBM band The Grief during tours in 1990 and 1991: Nederland : Nijmegen, Utrecht, Hoorn, Amsterdam; France : Paris, Montpelier, Saint-Malo, Portugal : Coimbra, Funchal (Madera). He was also sound engineer for contemporary music concerts as M. Kagel and theatre tour since 1989. He plays hurdy-gurdy in various improves, free-rock or industrial bands : UNACD, Schams, Phéromone, Tore, Enkidu. He is credited with introducing Keiji Hayno to the hurdy-gurdy (November 92), as well as Jim o'Rourke (October 95). He has played in the Duet with Dominique Regef (Malicorne). His interest in plastic arts and music is conjugated in sound environments exhibitions. There has been around twenty exhibits in 10 years:
References : Festival Tramway Rouen, Aéronef Lille, CREDAC Ivry, Traffics NantesS Member of the team of programation of festival Tramway 95-96 : K. Brotzmann/Massaker, Alboth, Painting, Denis Colin trio, Berthet/Le Junter, Deux fois rien (Spirli), Hint, Prohibition, Kinobits (Noetinger/Tanaka/Zetel/Le Quan), Thierry Robin. Radio producer at the national French radio France Culture : Tentative première/Clair de nuit, Nuits Magnétiques 1991, "La Lisière de Forêt" & various Atelier de Création Radiophonique.
Iin 2002 Eric has earned a PhD in Ethnology/Religious Science in analysing the popular culture of the peasants of the Normandy during the XIXth century. Some articles are available in French on werewolf, fairies, elves, goblins, imps, bee honey, and the opposition between wild and domestic animals. He actually try to do recordings of popular music : Lu Sheng dance and songs in a Thai minority of China, the Dong, where his girlfriend is doing ethnology.
Discography :
UNACD : (folk-indus band)
Eric Cordier acousmatic music & music for sound environments
Schams (improv)
Synapses (instrumental device/installation)
Tore - Jean Luc Guionnet (Church Organ) & Eric Cordier (hurdy-gurdy)
Phéromone (improves based on the concept of distant communication hormones)
Afflux (vernacular music : mixing and processing on-site, a van used as a studio)
out soon :
