Getting some proper EBM vibes here... Front 242, Nitzer Ebb, etc.

Atotal

Swinging Total

Lame

Communication

Frank Vigroux’s latest release »Magnetoscope« refers to the eighties, a “terrifying time” as he calls it. A time that influenced him and us; »Blade Runner« dystopia, Polaroid colors and VHS video recorder aesthetics (in French »Magnétoscope«) form the conceptual foundation of the sound aesthetics used here.
The compositions, between progressive pop (»VHS«), Vangelis romanticism (»L.A.«) and dark, abstract layers of sound (»Stream«), are worked out in detail, driving forward, and can also be harmonically complex. Nevertheless, as usual from Vigroux, they somehow always remain timeless and classic. New on »Magnetoscope« is a kind of melodic euphoria paired with machine-funk elements, like on »Cassette«.
»Magnetoscope« is part of a series of releases (including Vigroux’s predecessor »Ballades sur lac gelé« from 2020) that interrelate strict and cool analog sounds, drum machines and noise landscapes in an epic, almost cinematic way. Let’s leave it open whether this artistic attitude is also a child of the 80s.
»Magnetoscope« will be released on CD and digitally on November 25, 2022. Cover photo by Kurt d’Haeseleer.

Magnetoscope

Franck Vigroux »Cassette« taken from »Magnotoscope«

Sometimes so much modern classical and ambient music drives me to a desire to cut it up a bit. Slice all of those expanding pads with a sharp-edged and surgically-precise glitchy blade, which is an intrinsic part of my sonic DNA. With that said, I can always rely on the trusted raster to serve me a delicious cocktail of spiked-up goodness. In the case of their latest album, scheduled to drop this upcoming Friday, November 25th, the master chef, chief surgeon, and dystopian storyteller is the one and only Franck Vigroux, who, albeit has not appeared on these pages in the past, has been on my radar for many years, particularly from his releases on Leaf, Monotype, Aesthetical, and Matière Mémoire. In 2020 Vigroux appeared on this Chemnitz-based (Germany) artistic platform with his album, Ballades Sur Lac Gelé. This follow-up, titled Magnetoscope, is part of the same series of releases that "interrelate strict and cool analogue sounds, drum machines and noise landscapes in an epic, almost cinematic way." The title and the synth sounds which appear throughout the album (and on a piece which I'm premiering for you today) refer to the "terrifying time" of the 80s. The influences of "Blade Runner" as watched through an old VHS tape, the sounds of a warped cassette tape left out to melt in your steaming brick of a car in the parking lot, the unruly analogue music machines that never followed your directions and seemed to have a mind of their own - all of this is here, on Magnetoscope.

Paris NYC

TRACK PREMIERE : Franck Vigroux - Paris NYC

A Collaboration Between Franck Vigroux & Loïc Varanguien de Villepin

Aesthetical presents NACHT, a new collaborative project uniting Franck Vigroux, the renowned French composer, producer and sound artist, with Loïc Varanguien de Villepin, poet and vocalist known for his intense spoken-word performances and existential lyricism.

Emerging as a logical progression of Vigroux’s sonic language, NACHT expands upon the stark electronic minimalism and visceral textural depth familiar from his earlier releases on Aesthetical. Yet where Vigroux’s previous works often inhabited the realm of pure sound and abstraction, NACHT introduces a distinctly human and tragic dimension through Varanguien’s vocal laments, fractured monologues, whispers and declamations that move between invocation and despair.

This union gives rise to a sound that is both ritualistic and cinematic, merging the weight of Vigroux’s electronic architecture with the vulnerable gravity of the human voice. The result is an immersive sonic world where industrial drones, distorted harmonics and decaying pulses serve as vessels for poetic catharsis, a nocturnal descent into memory, loss, and transformation.

“NACHT is the sound of language dissolving into resonance, the echo of meaning after words have disappeared,” says Vigroux.

Recorded between 2023 and 2025 in France, the album unfolds as a sequence of sonic tableaux, at once intimate and monumental. Each piece navigates the tension between structure and collapse, between technological precision and emotional volatility. The voice of Varanguien, at times nearly submerged beneath waves of distortion, emerges as a ghostly presence, the last trace of consciousness within Vigroux’s vast, crumbling soundscapes.

Rooted in contemporary electroacoustic practice yet driven by a deeply physical sense of rhythm and tension, NACHT stands as both a continuation and a rupture within Vigroux’s oeuvre, a point where music, poetry, and noise converge into something starkly new.

CD Edition of 200 copies in 4 panel Digipak. 2 Tracks. Running Time 41:09

Nacht

NACHT “Nacht” CD / DL (AES012)

Désastre EP

Franck Vigroux - The Dune

JEZGRO005
Franck Vigroux
'Désastre'

Tracklist:
A1. Mare Nostrum
A2. Supernova
B1. Cap
B2. The Dune

Title: Franck Vigroux – Désastre EP
Release Date: 14th January
Release Formats: Vinyl, Digital
Catalogue Number: JEZGRO005
Label: Jezgro
Artwork by: Nicolas Ledoux
Mastered at: Calyx Mastering

The dystopian reality is here but as humans possess enormous power to destroy, we are still subordinated to the greater powers of nature and material world. Désastre depicts the fragility of human experience when compared to space. The A side gives the sensation of inevitable and slow, intimidating supercluster with it's opener Mare Nostrum, and on side A2 - Supernova track that decelerate into hard-kicking loops. The B side is making an introduction to the final cut that will happen with the Cap on side 1 and B2 The Dune - which finalize the encounter in their off-beat and industrial manner.

https://soundcloud.com/franckvigroux
http://www.franckvigroux.com

JEZGRO005 - Franck Vigroux - Désastre EP

Franck Vigroux's new EP "Théorème" 2019

Franck Vigroux  - TT -

"Nord" by French experimental electronic artist Franck Vigroux appears on the Théorème EP EP, forthcoming on DAC Records on February 8. This track originally premiered on Peak Time on Red Bull Radio.

Tune in to Peak Time on RedBullRadio.com every Monday to Friday, 12 to 3 PM EST: www.redbullradio.com/shows/peak-time

@franckvigroux

Communication

Franck Vigroux

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