The Sound In My Mind

»La Traversée« (»The Crossing«) is Matthias Puech’s second album for Hallow Ground and follows up on 2023’s »Mt. Hadamard National Park.« Profoundly inspired by re-reading »The Odyssey,« the French composer, instrument designer, and scholar used a Eurorack modular synthesizer to create four pieces that are by far the most intuitive and emotionally charged in his ever-expanding catalogue. Puech’s masterful command of sound comes to the forefront with even more urgency on this record. A wandering meditation on the human condition, »La Traversée« is an album that is constantly in motion—complex electronic music at its most gripping and evocative.

The foundation for »La Traversée« was laid when Puech prepared a live set for a tour organised in collaboration with Hallow Ground in support of »Mt. Hadamard National Park.« Before writing the first three pieces—»Ennosigaios,« »Polyphármakos,« »Nekuia«—the 18½-minute-long »Ithâké« was composed in near-total isolation in the South of France at the end of 2023. Puech performed the material live several times before taking a step black from it for a while. He revisited the pieces when preparing them for a release. »I was struck by how the technical process and the intention behind the music had completely vanished from my memory,« he says.

What remained intact, however, was Puech’s association of the material with one of the most influential texts of Western literature. Reading a graphic novel adaptation of »The Odyssey« with his two four-year-olds, he noticed the effect that it had on them and himself. »Its themes of longing, fear of and attraction to the unknown, unresolved quests, and the struggle for control felt topical,« he says. »I was completely taken. Every story ever told seemed contained in this ancient tale; every story I have ever tried to tell as a composer seemed inscribed in this framework.« This also extended to formal motifs such as the repetition of incidents, narrative developments, or dramatic effects that also mark »La Traversée.«

Puech says that he perceived Homer’s writing as musical, »like an old Delta blues or a Renaissance counterpoint,« which inspired his writing process. »With a couple of knobs on my Eurorack system, I could control the unfolding of a story,« he notes. »This made me pass through different emotional states and led to moments in which everything made sudden sense—when you as an artist get a glimpse at something essential, can touch upon something universal.« This shines through »La Traversée,« a wildly imaginative album that is deeply personal while also telling a story far more wide-reaching than that of its creator.

Composed, recorded and mixed by Matthias Puech
Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi
Cover: excerpt from J. M. W. Turner, Snow Storm: Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth (1842)
Drawing by Matthias Puech

La Traversée

Ennosigaios

«UnKnown»

@leo_la_vie

LÉO LA NUIT released her album LE DON DES LARMES on Knekelhuis. 
Out September 12.

LE DON DES LARMES

LA MER PLEURE

LÉO LA NUIT - LA MER PLEURE ft. Oliver Foster

Freman Hrd Wls

"Spatial" is a documented sound installation by Igor Dyachenko that emerges at the intersection of tracking data sonification and artistic exploration. Inspired by a hike up Agung volcano in Indonesia the work transforms the journey's experience into an emotional soundscape. 

The artist converts gps data and biometric indicators collected during the trek into an auditory plane, reimagining the physical and emotional journey as an auditory experience. The foundation of "Spatial" lies in the sonification of diverse personal data gathered during the ascent of volcano. Altitude, coordinates, time, heart rate, and blood oxygen levels serve as the source elements, each shaping the resulting soundscape. 

The soundscape of "Spatial" is an atmospheric composition that immerses the listener in the artist's unique personal experience. Flowing textures and multilayered sound atmospheres unfold as a journey, blurring the boundaries between physical presence and auditory imprint. The installation evokes a sense of timelessness, engaging the audience in an emotional journey that reflects the acquired experience, state, and challenges of the ascent and descent—both physical and mental.

Author: Igor Dyachenko
Technical collaborator: Artem Slesarev
Mastering: Alexandr Pustynskiy
Artwork: marat koshkin
Original photography and video: Igor Dyachenko
Date of track: 08.2024 
Route time: 14 hours
Location: Agung Volcano, Indonesia
Released: soak, 2025

Spatial

info + tracklist: https://radio.syg.ma/episodes/guests-208-siuxsun-somewhere-between-lost-and-found
https://www.emelinedescreaux.com

GUESTS

GUESTS 208 – Siuxsun: Somewhere Between Lost and Found

Dive into Aki & Matthieu tribulations into experimental music, blues, avant-garde and sound poetry. Here with a playful blend of nerds, intellectuals, bluesmen and unconventional musicians.

Steep Panning w/ Aki Yamouridis & Matthieu Fuentes (16.10.2025)

Klein - 84 remy [Parkwuud Entertainment]
https://klein1997.bandcamp.com/album/sleep-with-a-cane

Thme & Virginia Aveline - From Above [VAKNAR]
https://vaagner.bandcamp.com/album/diving-wounds

Barefoot - Loam [Captured Visions]
https://capturedvisions.bandcamp.com/album/unseen-objects

Natas Kunas - The Sea (Čiurlionis Recomposed) [self-released]
https://nataskunas.bandcamp.com/track/the-sea-iurlionis-recomposed

Patina Lush - Mist Unseen (Script Remix) [Amulet of Tears]
https://amuletoftears.bandcamp.com/album/mist-unseen

Sleep Inc. - Dive to the Heart [self-released]
https://sleepinc.bandcamp.com/album/ambient

Imberbe - getting clearer and clearer [Altamira Records]
https://imberbe.bandcamp.com/album/presence

XENIA REAPER - container 3am [Oscilla Sound]
https://oscillasound.bandcamp.com/album/lmnl004-zumi3

DJ Lostboi - LB 100 [Queeste]
https://queeste.bandcamp.com/album/the-flash

PRESENTE - Acqua Fresca [Yerevan Tapes]
https://lentefantasma.bandcamp.com/album/ultra-heaven

Glacial Anatomy - Twilight at 3AM [Perceptual Tapes]
https://perceptualtapes.bandcamp.com/album/the-star-whispers

Teatre - Where the River No Longer Runs [Flummoxed]
https://flummoxedrec.bandcamp.com/album/entrusting-flame

Malibu - Jaded [YEAR0001]
https://mmmmalibu.bandcamp.com/album/vanities

ıšdavıkaı - Ett rasande stillestånd [Flummoxed]
https://flummoxedrec.bandcamp.com/album/entrusting-flame

Amulet of Tears @ Radio Vilnius #14 / October 15th, 2025

Nothing Here Now w/ Zohar & Susu Laroche - 05 Novembre 2025

So You ... (Hermes, Orpheus, Eurydice) is a major new work by legendary experimental composer Alvin Lucier. It is an hour long epic that tracks the familiar Orpheus myth from a less familiar perspective: that of Eurydice as imagined by poet H.D.; a Eurydice who rails at Orpheus for his hubris in attempting to rescue her. Two key, and formerly distinct, aspects of Lucier's practice come together in this piece: the exploration of interference patterns in closely tuned intervals, and the exploration of resonant chambers. From speakers mounted inside amphorae a constantly turning braid of beating sine waves trace the descent into the depths of hell, and then the doomed attempt to climb back into life.

Singer Jessika Kenney and long-time Lucier collaborators Anthony Burr and Charles Curtis embody the three title characters in deeply focused performances that assert themselves against the process of the sweep, or become enfolded in it. The electronics were mixed in real time by programmer and equipment designer Tom Erbe.

BT044 -Alvin Lucier - So You ... (Hermes, Orpheus, Eurydice)[sample]

As you can imagine we are under huge pressure at the moment and are working flat out to ensure Cafe OTO survives this. The impact of this situation is extremely acute for small venues like ours and we need all the support we can get to pull through. Please donate what you can, if you can. Thank you. 

Cafe OTO opened in April 2008 with the aim of providing a home for creative new music that exists outside of the mainstream. It comprises one large cafe/performance space open during the day serving food and drink with an evening programme of live music almost seven nights a week. 

OTOROKU is part of OTOProjects - a not-for-profit Community Interest Company (CIC) that has been set up to manage the programme at Café Oto. Any profits from OTOROKU are put back into supporting what we do and will help us to continue programming the best musicians and performers from all over the world.

www.cafeoto.co.uk

BT044 -Alvin Lucier - So You ... (Hermes, Orpheus, Eurydice)[sample]

cafeOTO

Related tracks