Avant le Rivage takes us back to the poetics of a liminal space in its original definition : a place of transition, of change ; a place that contains the source of a reverie. At the heart of Mélodie Blaison's music, the shore is not seen as an elementary boundary between water and land. Rather, it is a crossroads of prolific inter-relations, a breeding ground for heterogeneous temporalities that invite disembodied contemplation.

In this way, the sound materials used by the composer are intertwined to construct a series of impressions rather than a path. Her work is characterised by a long-term practice of breathing through the use of flutes. From Pluie + Pluie onwards, the listener becomes familiar with these diffuse breaths that fade into the distance. At once misty curtains and traces of imaginary worlds in the making, Mélodie Blaison's flute lines give her music a spectral body.

In addition, the artist works by playing with echoes. The percussion bounces and transposes, the synths speed up and slow down, the field recordings metamorphose. As if each component contained the seed of a communication that never stops searching itself. The last track, which gives the album its title, resonates with these multiple trajectories, so many intimate immensities that it's up to us to approach.

Mélodie Blaison is a French artist currently based in Brussels. Her work is a space for experimentation, combining modular sculptures, immersive installations and sound objects. She is interested in the hybrid spaces that fiction can generate, while questioning our relationship with the world through creative processes rooted in care, ecofeminist theories and the poetic mapping of speculative worlds. Avant le Rivage is her second album, following on from VINTVRI, released on Grande Rousse Disques in 2022.
released May 17, 2024

paru le 17 mai 2024 on Wabi-Sabi Tapes

composed and mixed by Mélodie Blaison
mastered by Adrien Lambert
artwork by Mona Chancogne
text by Edouard Lambert
printed at toner toner, screen printing workshop at Grrrnd Zero, Vaulx-en-Velin

Dans un Mirage froid

“João Alegria is an essential figure in the Portuguese underground music scene. With a prolific career spanning over a decade, the guitarist – as he prefers to be called – embodies artistic commitment, resilience, and a deep devotion to crafting dark, experimental soundscapes. The numerous albums the Lisbon-based musician has released testify to a sonic vision akin to its object of study: unhurried and unperturbable, yet continuous and tempestuous."

— João Morado (Beats for Peeps, Cosmofonia, Jazz.pt)

“You paint for fame & status, I paint for freedom & awareness”, reads one of the vertical graffiti that Mr.Paradox Paradise painted on some Berlin building. Likewise, there is nothing in João Alegria’s art that is done with the intention of fame or likes. He spent more than a decade editing with recognition limited to the “community” of sound nomads. “I’ve been doing this for some time and I don’t have a very wide audience”, he admits. However, who knows, knows. And who knows, like it. João Alegria’s music is for connoisseurs. Perhaps that will always be the case.
.
However, the unique contours of his art, combined with a stubborn aesthetic consistency and prolificacy, are the characteristics that simultaneously nest and vitalize it. The unconditional and obstinate way in which this “guitarist” – as he likes to be called – has created his work is a rare case of perseverance. His motivation? It’s not entirely explicit, but somewhere between the love of music and the physiological need to create lives the truth of João Alegria. If he lives because he breathes, he seems to make music because he has to live. One senses in his speech an inevitability of cathartic genesis that surreptitiously emerges between the lines like a figure wandering through the night.
João Alegria can also move through the shadows, but his music definitely points to the heavens, full of verticality” 

– João Morado (Beats for Peeps, Cosmofonia, Jazz.pt)

Field recording, Experimental, Found Sound, Granular Synth and Tape based  music compositions.  Soundscapes for Film.

Contact : melodie.blaison@hotmail.fr

Resident on @lyl_radio *bimestrial show https://lyl.live/show/an-hour-is-a-sea *
Next :
01.06 Sieste Ensemble - Paris 
Past dates :
25.05 Tremolo - Kult XL - Brussels
11.05 LYL Radio Spring Camp - Brussels
10.05 Pleasure Island Project
02.05 Le Botanique - Brussels
18.04 Début_Point Festival - Nantes
12.04 Esquisse - Eglise du Beguinage - Brussels
29.03 L'Embobineuse - Marseille
25.03 L'Ecurie - Genève 
25.03 Chrüsimüsi records - A13 - Biel/Bienne
24.03 Les Nouveaux Sauvages - Sport National - Montreuil
20.03 Bozar x Reset - Brussels 
14.11.24 Le BRASS - Brussels
25.10.24 Bourgui Show - Dijon
24.10.24 Mental Load Agency - Basel
22.10.24 Kraskpek Myzik - Lyon
19.10.24  PAN Café - Paris
18.10.24  Scroll Galerie - Nantes
25.09.24 Kiosk Radio - Bruxelles
29.09.24 Festival Murf Murw - Tilburg
13.09.24 Radio Tempo Não Pára - Amsterdam
19.07.24 Objects & Sound - Ghent 
22.06.24 Karmen Camina - Strasbourg
19.06.24 Moli del tro/Les Disques de la Spirale - LaVallée - Bruxelles
18.06.24 Marietta - Nantes
15.06.24 Fraktal Kombo - ZAD NDDL
13.06.23 Le Tony - Paris
15.05.24 Maison Poème - Bruxelles
29.03.24 Biennale Nova XX - CWB -Le Générateur - Paris 
15.12.23 Recyclart - Bruxelles
13.10.23 Glassbox Nord avec Camille Juthier - Paris
04.10.23 Atelier210 - Bruxelles
16.09.23 Ungovernable Bodies - Huidenclub - Rotterdam
12.08.23 Hemelbed - Dauwtrip - Theresia - Gent
29.07.23 Nickelos Festival - Demord Enregistrements - Planguenoual 
23.07.23 Psst Mlle - Brasseries Atlas - Bruxelles
15.07.23  Lire au parc - Seine Saint Denis - Paris
13.07.23  Bosbar - Het Bos - Antwerpen
25.06.23.  La Matinée - Bruxelles
18.06.23.  Witch You Were Hear - La Station - Nice
14.06.23.  Nahal recordings Label Night - Petit Bain - Paris
11.06.23.  Vivarium festival - La Cheminée - Bruxelles
03.06.23.  La Nuit Blanche avec Camille Juthier et Low Lov - Pompidou - Paris
13.05.23.  Le Soma - Marseille
14.04.23.  Apulati Bien Release - SMOG - Bruxelles
11.12.23.  Schiev Festival - Beursschouwburg - Bruxelles
09.12.22.  Le Garage 29 - Bruxelles
08.12.22.  No God Ritual Petit Bain - Paris
18.11.22.  Le Zorba - Paris
17.11.22.  Askip - Nantes
28.10.22.  Aqua Salata Festival - Bruxelles
08.10.22.  Equinoxe/Bad to the Bone Le Sample - Bagnolet
29.10.22.  Punkt.e Final.e - Antre-Peaux - Bourges
08.09.22.  Des Corps à Core - CAC La Traverse - Alfortville
04.09.22.  Divagation - Bruxelles
27.07.22.  ChezFifi Creperie - Penmar'ch
18.06.22.  La BaieVitrée - Pantin
10.06.22.  Festival INACT - Strasbourg
19.05.22.  22,48m2 Galerie - Paris
23.04.22.  Le Jardin C - Nantes
10.12.21.  Set30 - Blockhaus DIY - Nantes
27.11.21.  Festival Vrrraiment! - Metaxu - Toulon
23.09.21.  NO0S festival - Marseille
06.11.21.  Chouette Fête avec LL Cool Jo - Le Pannonica - Nantes
02.10.21.  Agitations festival - Antre-Peaux - Bourges

You can get 12" vinyl of all my albums on bandcamp.
Please follow my youtube channel for my videos-
and my instagram for my visual art.  Thanks!

For bookings: meagreresource@hotmail.com

Mark Vernon is a Glasgow based sound artist who works with found tapes and acousmatic presence. His work explores themes of magnetic memory, audio archaeology, voyeurism and nostalgia. His solo music projects have been published through labels including Kye, Glistening Examples, Flaming Pines, Misanthropic Agenda, Entr’acte and Canti Magnetici. He co-runs and curates Glasgow art radio station, Radiophrenia and has produced programmes for stations internationally.