Wednesday, February 21, 2018

Music Review:
Francisco Meirino & Bruno Duplant
"Dedans / Dehors"
(Moving Furniture Records)


https://movingfurniturerecords.bandcamp.com/album/dedans-dehors

For some reason, I've really been into duos lately.   Granted, you could look at an artist such as I Hate You Just Kidding and not realize based on their name that they are a duo, but I've really been listening to a lot of collaborative works which tend to be Artist 1 & Artist 2 in the way that they are written.    I'm not sure whether this is a good or a bad thing, but if you read all the reviews I think we can agree it is a good thing.

This album begins with the track "Dedans".   It has a field recording sound to it, where it appears to be people talking (and I always imagine situations like this as being in a coffee shop for some reason), they're laughing and on top of that is the ding of what could be a cash register but I assume is a triangle.   There is this brief sound like snoring and then these little squeals come in before it gets a little shakey.   The door creaks and the music begins to start beeping.   It grows rather intense before coming to a complete stop and the track is not even over yet.

Dings return as do the talking in the background.   There are some sharp/harsh static parts coming through as well.   It gets into these dark swirls with an ohm feel before it really feels like we're beginning to dredge through something.  It's a cross between sifting through sand and trying to escape quicksand.   I also enjoy how the sounds made by the artists themselves seem to overlap what I can only assume is the soundtrack of that previously mentioned coffee shop.   Though, it is entirely possible they are creating these sounds in front of people talking, in a live setting, but I find that line of thinking much more depressing.

Between the two song titles that are the album title comes a song called "Interstice".   It begins with applause and then there are footsteps.   Whispering and running water leads us back to the dings of the triangle.   It gets quiet and then sounds as if water is running from a faucet, much different than the earlier sounds of water.   Bell tones and bug zappers, spoken words and squeals which make me think of broken electronics: the way a television or radio might stop working for example and create a similar sound.

"Dehors" begins with this sort of haunted synth that you would expect to hear in some old monster movie.   It has elements of video games to it as well.   Laser shots are fired.   People begin talking again as there is this certain screen that could be a bird.   The people begin laughing and it sounds as if glasses are being tapped together.   So it is back to that sort of coffee shop feel but with some kind of baby bird (dinosaur?) making sounds as well.

Slow dings are out next with what sounds like a car door being closed.    There is this quieter winding, like an old fashioned watch, and then people can briefly be heard talking but it goes through a spell of minimal sound now.    It begins ringing through in waves which sound like a car horn before it becomes almost completely quiet.   A banging and singing can be heard in the distance.    Dark pianos now bring out what sound like lawn sprinklers.   I'm still not sure what this might be other than a candid soundtrack to a neighborhood in the suburbs. 

Within the talking, scuffling, dinosaur/bird chirping and even coughing there is this background pitch that is rather high and feel like could become a cause of tinnitus.   There are other sounds in here as well, scraping for example, but this one high frequency just seems to take over everything else.    Did you ever notice how when you listen to a sound such as this, when it is high pitched, once it stops it leaves this strange sensation in your ears?   I've always found that fascinating for some reason: the sound itself being one thing, but the after affects of it being another additional aspect.

Droid type beeps and whirrs come out with what could be the gentle pluck of some string and that background talking grows louder like at an airport.   A ringing such as a timer one would use for cooking comes in next and destroys all of the other aspects of this piece.   A soft piano plays in the background of it.    You can feel that this is the curtain call as soon as you hear it and this has been an interesting look into both the human mind and society as a whole.

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