»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

Garden of Motion #21 - w/ Arielle Gambas - 07.09.2025

Born out of a Moscow Kurs radio show and shaped in Tokyo’s underground, Moomba-Tsoomba presents its debut compilation — a cross-continental drift between Japan and Russia’s experimental scenes.
Ambient layers, hazy dub rhythms, and obscure collages — it’s all here.
The stoned celebration features long-time psycho-dub heroes Call Weirdo (Konstantin Spiridonov) and DJ HeadSick (Nikolay Dolgov), joined by new friends raremotherfucker (Nihat), Perfect Skin (Andrew), DZA (Sasha), and yolabmi, bringing a new vision to the Moomba sound.

MT002 - yolabmi - MAD

evo-lation six is evo-natura's sixth fundraising compilation, featuring RougeHotel, Ryo Murakami, Kagami Smile, Penelope's Fiance, DJ Warzone, Souvenir, DJ Angst.

All profits made will be donated to Eden Reforestation Projects. (www.eden-plus.org)

Artwork by Ronja-Elina Kappl
Curated & Mastered by Ioannis Nafpliotis

Buy / Stream

Ryo Murakami - To lead

Otto Taimela returns with his second album for London ambient free divers SWIMS, following 2024’s celebrated "Inner Beauty".

"Uncommon & Fragile" departs from Otto's meadowed, ivory-centric introspections, reaching further into binaural sound design, trance pointillism, and groundswells of angular percussion. This is less a club record, more something to soothe post-rave tinnitus on the bus home. 

”I guess you could say that this is the outcome of a great need for escapism. I’m not the biggest fan of the current timeline, so I wanted to make something pretty, splashy, colourful and quirky just for myself. Embracing simplicity in a way of leaning towards maximalism without getting too suffocated. It’s a ’dear diary’-kinda album….”
-Otto

▫️Mastered for vinyl by Giuseppe Ielasi
▫️Housed in printed sleeves designed by Esquive Studio
▫️Shrink wrapped for mint guarantee
▫️Limited to 150 copies

BUY THE VINYL

Escape Plan [SWIM16]

Hollow Shell

info: https://radio.syg.ma/episodes/pba-robert-curgenven
https://robertcurgenven.bandcamp.com/music
https://www.recordedfields.net

PBA – Robert Curgenven

Vaulted Cant; reflecting on years singing on a cathedral's Cantoris benches, many afternoons looking at the skies through church windows, dapples of coloured light. Of voices obscured behind heavy walls.

Vaulted Cant is my contribution to 'Enochia', the first ambient compilation from the in.terra label; a new project from Godezz. Out 26th November on Bandcamp and streaming. 

I'll be performing live at the launch party on the same night at Old Church, Stoke Newington. RA Link: https://ra.co/events/2288605

Vaulted Cant

Ni Ku

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