Artist: Ezéchiel Pailhès
Album: Mélopée
Release date: 24/06/2022 
Label: Circus Company
Formats: Digital

With his new single, "Mélopée", Ezéchiel Pailhès is unveiling his fourth solo album to be released next autumn. The French composer, pianist and vocalist pursues his exploration of the crossroads between poetry and songs, piano and synth, verses from the past and sounds of today.

Since 2013, Ezéchiel Pailhès has been crafting a unique French synth pop. On his first three albums, he switched between songs inspired by poetry, instrumental ballads and electronica with hummed choruses. 

“Mélopée”, the very first single on the album, was written shortly after Ezéchiel Pailhès rediscovered a bunch of musicals. “I wanted to compose a song that would mix lightheartedness and torment, just like in these movies”, he recalls. The lyrics draw their inspiration from two sonnets by Renée Vivien. They use naturalist metaphors whilst alluding, in this case, to pleasure, but also to the sorrows and cravings triggered by lust and physical love.

This single marks the release of his fourth album in the autumn of 2022, which brings together adaptations of poems written in the 16th, 18th, and 19th centuries by French poetesses Louise Labé, Marceline Desbordes-Valmore and Renée Vivien, together with rich melodic compositions inspired by the rhythms, effects and wording of electronica and urban music.

Composed by Ezéchiel Pailhès
Written by Renée Vivien
Published by Circus Company Publishing 

Mixed by Stéphane ‘Alf’ Briat at Bleep Studio, Paris
Mastered by Matt Colton at Metropolis Mastering, Londres
Executive production by Mathias Duchemin

Mélopée

Ezéchiel Pailhès - Mélopée

Cliche 56: Red Axes - Ballad of The Ice LP (April 28th, 2014 - vinyl + CD + digital)

Check the video for Papa Sooma: http://youtu.be/svXZCOQobhc

mp3: http://www.official.fm/playlists/tTHL
itunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/ballad-of-the-ice/id847325595
vinyl: http://www.juno.co.uk/products/red-axes-ballad-of-the-ice/528596-01/
CD: http://www.juno.co.uk/products/red-axes-ballad-of-the-ice/528598-01/

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Red Axes is Niv Arzi and Dori Sadovnik, two young men who have always lived in Tel-Aviv and have been making music together since the noughties. Ballad of the Ice is their debut album. Their artistic travels have taken them from the rock scene to the dancefloors, and to creating an album. More than a summary, this LP is an invitation to discover a singular musical identity: a ballad of the ice, a song as light as love and cold as a tunnel, springy as a dance step and deep as nostalgia.

Originally, the two young men were part of the band Red Cotton. Their musical obsessions were very distinct and have never really left them since: post-punk, new-wave, synth-pop, gothic rock, italo-disco and all the other styles with double-barrelled names that flourished in the underground of the western world at the turn of the 70s and 80s. They were barely born then, and Israel was hardly a promised land for these musical trends. Nonetheless, today the people who love these styles, at the forefront of which Cosmo Vitelli, founder of the label I’m a Cliché who signed them, recognise Red Axes’ talent for creating tracks that are not only impeccably referenced but also terribly current, in their production and in their intentions.

In 2009, house and techno made a noisy entrance into their lives. They were DJs by then and Tel Aviv was all hedonism and crazy parties. Red Cotton was over and Red Axes began. In 2012, I’m a Cliché introduced them into a community of people who enjoyed what the musical press could refer to as ‘cold-rave’. Four EPs were released on the French label that discovered sharp acts such as Yuksek, Azari & III and Simian Mobile Disco. Add to these a bunch of edits that went spinning on everyone’s turntables, remixes and originals that attracted labels such as Kill the JD, Throne of Blood, Correspondant, Clouded Vision, Relish and others – these built Red Axes’ reputation as the makers of solid dancefloor tools. Meanwhile, being resident DJs of the Bootleg in Tel Aviv gave them the ability to play versatile, broaden their scope, improve their way of thinking the music. It also allowed them to rub shoulders with some of their favourite DJs, from Ivan Smagghe and Jennifer Cardini to the Cómeme crew. These established DJs quickly became major supporters.

But Red Axes didn’t get lost in a loop of never-ending clubbing. The extent of their research is evident on the album. Apart from beautiful vocals by Abrão, a member of various Brazilian punk bands of the 80s, Arzi and Sadovnik handled all the instruments and machines. The influence of the types of music they love – which aren’t limited to the ones we just referred to – is inevitably present, but translates in unexpected ways. There’s a lot of maturity in these songs, memories, hashed-out feelings. This music could emanate from much older men; it brings on a certain saudade. But it’s never heavy and doesn’t rely on dusty clichés: Red Axes are very current and love to have fun above all else. They tread on ice with a certain elegance, ice that mustn’t crack or melt.

After ‘Head Like Glass’, a pure cold-wave intro, Red Axes take us on a repetitive stroll of light percussion with ‘Kicks Out of You’. Then comes the rock track ‘Watkins’, followed by a brass dub ‘Only a Clown Can Catch an Axe’. The poignant ‘Papa Sooma’ feels like it’s coming out of an old cassette player, and ‘Road to the Hills’ is all intimate house feelings. ‘Neon’ will make you clap your hands on the stage of an urban western, while ‘Candy’ is a toe-tapping Mancunian devil. ‘Bela Lugosi’s Dead’, a Bauhaus cover, adds a layer of groove in the bat cave, and finally, ‘Dreams Like a Tale’ closes the album in a psychedelic mist.

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official video

Red Axes ft Abrão- Papa Sooma (OUT NOW - from debut album Ballad of the Ice)

We lost two brave musical souls in the recent weeks. 

I made an edit to honor both of them (linking them to the last generation, a group of brave people who are protesting creatively for a change in climate politics)

Astrud & Tina - Last Generation

Fredric To The Stars

112 KBPS FILES - DON'T BE A DUNCE!

Buy/Stream: razor-n-tape.lnk.to/ButIDoExtended

Championed heavily by Gilles Peterson, lovetempo’s modern soul classic “But I Do” gets a vinyl release with a trio of remixes. Crackazat delivers in his signature style, weaving the organic elements and earworm vocals of the original into a deep and jazzy mix. Londoner Daisybelle bumps the BPMs up a few notches and adds pulsing synths to her take, and Brazilian duo From House To Disco turn in a dubby club remix to round out the record.

But I Do Extended

But I Do (12“ Mix)

Webinar™ - 01 フィジーSunburst

This Mix is recorded at Saison opening 2025 at UNGEHEUE VELDEN/Wörthersee/Austria

SUMMER SUNSET DOWNBEAT MIX - SAISON OPENING UNGEHEUER 2025

First Part is out! 2+3 coming soon 💕🎶

Back in their familiar DOG home, as ever, there's warmth and musicality running through it all, blending dusty house, broken beat and a touch of downtempo haze. ....plenty of live instrumentation, a few carefully chosen samples, and the sense that these are producers still having fun, even after all these years in the game. (Juno records 2025)

Bandcamp

Defy Gravity

Pulse Of Memory /w Viken Arman

The Unheard

Session Victim - Pulse of Memory (Frits Wentink Remix)

Sometimes

Jimpster & OVEOUS - FLO (Dub)

Weapons (Instrumental)

"Memento" is an exclusive track i made for Compost Head Honcho Michael Reinboth's "Future Sounds Of Jazz 13" compilation. 
Deep vibes, enjoy !

Out Now!
Beatport: https://www.beatport.com/release/future-sounds-of-jazz-volume-13/1931853
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/at/album/future-sounds-of-jazz-vol-13/id1195562165

Memento

Joakim - Heartbeats

Retro-futuristic-synthpop-triphop-melodic-electronica written and produced by Ch. Preunkert (Paramedique)... these machines seem to  dream of an old si-fi movie! Tragic and happy ending will beam through time and space and tell stories of a past, when technology was yet a promise of a better future.

Fredric To The Stars

C.P. Space Orchestra

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