Seuil Optique, duo of Sig Valax and Nicolas Tourney, offers a unique experience of listening to music in the dark. Immersing the stage and the public in constant darkness, Seuil Optique creates soundscapes where electronic transmissions, acousmatic landscapes and refined drones intersect. By jostling the boundaries between listening, blind manipulation of machines and immersive experience offered to the audience, the two musicians explore new sound tracks, in permanent dialogue with hybrid musicalities and the practice of singular instruments: persephone, field recording, electro-acoustic devices, matrices and samples.
On stage, they use deliberately “open” improvisation strategies and defeat the boundaries between manipulating machines in the dark, harmonics tinged with noise-producing materials and the “eyes closed” hearing experience offered to the public.
“Les Habitants, Besides” is a sequel of the duo’s third album Les Habitants, published a few weeks ago. It focuses on the practice of electronic improvisation. Recorded in three days and three nights, in Paris, in total darkness, Les Habitants aims to be a place of recognition of gesture as a creative act. No preparation beforehand, no benchmark, no intro or climax, only the interaction between two ways of producing spectral imprints. In this sound dialogue, electronics are the vector of total sincerity: the inhabitants target the listener, bringing them to live the experience of the moment that guides the “non-idiomatic” music of Seuil Optique, in which each sound, each transmitted waveform is dedicated to the inhabitants of the present.
Seuil Optique, duo of Sig Valax and Nicolas Tourney, offers a unique experience of listening to music in the dark. Immersing the stage and the public in constant darkness, Seuil Optique creates soundscapes where electronic transmissions, acousmatic landscapes and refined drones intersect. By jostling the boundaries between listening, blind manipulation of machines and immersive experience offered to the audience, the two musicians explore new sound tracks, in permanent dialogue with hybrid musicalities and the practice of singular instruments: persephone, field recording, electro-acoustic devices, matrices and samples.
On stage, they use deliberately “open” improvisation strategies and defeat the boundaries between manipulating machines in the dark, harmonics tinged with noise-producing materials and the “eyes closed” hearing experience offered to the public.
Seuil Optique’s third album, Les Habitants, focuses on the practice of electronic improvisation. Recorded in three days and three nights, in Paris, in total darkness, Les Habitants aims to be a place of recognition of gesture as a creative act. No preparation beforehand, no benchmark, no intro or climax, only the interaction between two ways of producing spectral imprints. In this sound dialogue, electronics are the vector of total sincerity: the inhabitants target the listener, bringing them to live the experience of the moment that guides the “non-idiomatic” music of Seuil Optique, in which each sound, each transmitted waveform is dedicated to the inhabitants of the present.
Mesce Basse gathers five female musicians interested by real time composition and transformation of sound textures. They like to play with styles and twist formats by mixing free improvisation, electro, spoken word, noise, ambient, and songs. Their soundscape is provided by a diverse setting of electronic, accoustic and DIY instruments.
We are very happy to release their first album Marée Haute, consisting of free contrasted and subtle tracks, presenting the band’s personal blend of delicate atmospheres, bursts of energy and surprising shifts.
Under the Podarces pseudonym Benoît Rouits (who also plays oboe in Jukpic ) creates experimental improvised music with keyboards. Last year he made us discover one of his old works : A Frozen Journey, made in 2009 with virtual synthesizers and inspired by some writings of Philip K. Dick. We enjoyed this album a lot and although it undoubtedly stands on its own we felt its minimalist abstraction could make it a very interesting material to incorporate in new works. We made this suggestion to Benoît and some other collaborators and aquaintances who agreed and accepted to contribute remixes of what is now called “Frozen Journeys”, featuring the original tracks as well as remixes by Humanfobia, Human Koala, Nina Kardec, Anastatsia Vronski, Kecap Tuyul, Nicolas Tourney, Sig Valax, Filmy Ghost, Yann Pillas, Thomas Park, Luciftias, Doedelzak.
Click on the picture to visit the download page on archive.org :
We are proud to present the second edition of the Solo Duo Trio project co-organized by labels Apocope & eg0cide productions. This serie of live concerts follows a simple format: three parts, one solo, one duo, one trio. Artists are invited to present new projects, and to try to new encounters (for one live set or more). All concerts are later published jointly by Apocope & eg0cide. The 2nd event of the serie took place on may 29 at Les Instants Chavirés (Montreuil), one of the most lasting and notable venues devoted to free improvisation and experimental music around Paris.
This show featured 6 french experimental musicians active in the free improvisation and noise scene (more info on the artists below)
Début 2018, Egocide Production s’est associé au label Apocope (fondé par Paul-André Landes et Xavier Mussat) pour développer un projet initié par Xavier Mussat : organiser des soirées concerts selon un format simple : trois parties, un solo, un duo, un trio. Les artistes sont invités à tester des projets inédits, à tenter des rencontres le temps d’un live (et plus si affinité). La 3ème édition sera une spéciale guitare et aura lieu le 5 octobre, aux Instants Chavirés comme la seconde (29 mai 2018) dont nous publions aujourd’hui les enregistrements.
Click on the picture to visit the download page on archive.org :
Recorded by Benjamin Pagier
Track 1 mixed by Laurent Di Biase. Due to technical problems during the recording, this is only a short excerpt of the live set, edited by the artist.
Track 2 et 3 mixed and mastered by Benjamin Pagier
Artwork by Xavier Mussat
Special Thanks to
– JF Pichard and all the crew of Les Instants Chavirés
– Aurélien Digard for the pictures : full album here
– Annie Zivkovic for the videos
Laurent Di Biase
Interdisciplinary and sound artist, graduated from Ecole nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts of Paris and attached to the Locus Sonus audio in art research laboratory, lives and works in Paris. He develops a research and creation work based on mobility and new medias concepts, such as streaming, by the elaboration of new scripts forms linked to the practice of performance, with fiction and real time notions. His approach questions principally the nature of the artwork between space, time and public relationship. His artworks take shape of AV performances concerts, sculptures installations, sound creations. Strongly inspired by the avant-garde culture, he oriented his practice toward the probable links between media art and experimental music.
Sig Valax & ZARAZ WAM ZAGRAM
From left to right : Sig Valax & ZARAZ WAM ZAGRAM
Sig Valax
Multimedia artists interested in digital & interactive, ecology and DIY electronics. Studied electroacoustic music in the Pantin conservatory. She composed pieces & created installations comissioned by various institutuions. She is also active as an improviser, using analog synthesizer and DIY electronics. She is a member of the bands Sysma (whose first album Revenances was published by eg0cide productions in 2016) under the X-pharmaka moniker, and also Vierge Noire, Mesce Basse, Elek Ember.
ZARAZ WAM ZAGRAM
Very active noisician / improviser since the 90s in Paris, JZ aka ZARAZ WAM ZAGRAM Plays / played in many bands and is the core member of the free improv / noise ensemble Friponnes de Porc. Also involved in the organization of experimental musics, he curates the live events series Le Non_Jazz.
Camille Émaille, Nina Garcia & Arnaud Rivière
From left to right : Arnaud Rivière, Camille Emaille, Nina Garcia
Camille Émaille
Camille Émaille, a percusionnist, studied at the Musik-Akademie of Basel (Switzerland) with Christian Dierstein on contemporary music and with Fred Frith on free improvisation. She works with many artists from varying fields, such as video, muppet theatre, shadow theater and plays in the musical projects Oxke Fixu (duo with clarinet), Ghoast (duo with american saxophonist Tom Weeks), ESCARGOT (her quintet with Timothée Quost on trumpet, Xavière Fertin on clarinet, Louis Frères on e-bass and Tom Malmendier on drums).
Nina Garcia
Nina Garcia plays guitar with a minimal set up (1 guitar, 1 pedal, 1 amp) and focuses on the gesture and the sound research on the instrument : its resonances, limits, expansions, impurities, all the audibles parts of the guitar. She performs in solo as Mariachi, in the band Mamiedaragon (no lagos musique label), in duo with trombonist Maria Bertel, and in trio with Qonicho B ! (Blanche Lafuente, Morgane Carnet).
Arnaud Rivière
Arnaud Rivière is an experimental electroacoustic musician, free improviser, instrument designer, sound installation artist, co-founder and director of Sonic Protest Festival, and a member of ONCEIM ensemble. Currently based in Paris and active since the late 1990s, Rivière plays on DIY-electroacoustic device (built around a repaired turntable’s pick-up), prepared mixer, and other primitive sound tools, performing solo, in groups, and with numerous improvisers.
Eg0cide Productions 