MATTHIAS PUECH, Mt. Hadamard National Park, LP

Release date: 31 January 2023
Catalogue nr. - HG2302
Format: Vinyl / digital
Hallow Ground

hallowground.bandcamp.com

Tracklist:
1. Mt. Hadamard National Park     (22:48)
2. Suspension     (3:57)
3. Imperceptible Life     (14:57)

Credits:
Composed, recorded and mixed by Matthias Puech
Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi
Photo by Caroline Schöbi
Drawings by Matthias Puech
Artwork by Laurin Huber
Thanks to Gustave Evrard

///

“Mt. Hadamard National Park” is the Hallow Ground debut by composer, programmer, and instrument designer Matthias Puech. Informed by mathematical and artistic approaches that aim to both contemplate on and control complexity, the eponymous five-part composition explores natural and mystical forces through what he calls “audio-naturalist noise”. The composition is complemented by two further pieces: “Suspension” emulates the chemical phenomenon of the same name, while “Imperceptible Life” hinges on the musical possibilities of stridulation. Over the course of the entire album, Puech’s singular take on electro-acoustic and electronic music creates unique sonic spaces as much as it pays its dues to the unpredictability of the world that we inhabit.

Jacques Hadamard was a pioneer among physicists and mathematicians who, in the early 20th century, were puzzled by processes that are deterministic but hard to predict. While researching the history of Chaos theory, Puech also felt drawn to an artistic movement from the mid-19th century, the so-called Hudson River school of painting, whose rise coincided with the gradual taming of the sites of Northern American wilderness it chose as its source of inspiration and subject. Fascinated by both attempts to contemplate on and control complexity, Puech wondered what would happen if those were to meet. “Mt. Hadamard National Park” offers thus in Puech’s words “an audio-naturalist noise meandering through an invented space that is subject to the arbitrariness of natural and mystical forces.” The sounds, arranged in sweeping and tense dynamics, serve as multiple agents within a complex system. The synthetic flora and fauna feels uncannily familiar or even disturbingly hostile at times. “Mt. Hadamard National Park” is an artistic expression of natural phenomena, but also a meditation on the imprint those leave on the psyche of the people who encounter them.

The short piece “Suspension” picks up on a similar idea. “In chemistry, a suspension is a mixture of small solid particles inside a liquid,” Puech explains. This process is mirrored in aquatic yet tangible sounds as well as dynamics that slowly converge towards density before the composition ends on a quiet note. The 14-minute-long “Imperceptible Life” is based on a live performance first conceived as a full-scale test drive of some new electronic equipment Puech was designing at that time. It explores the musical potential of stridulation, the act of creating sounds by rubbing together certain body parts—in the insect world, a common means of communication. Again, Puech’s approach is neither purely naturalistic nor only mimetic. Rather, “Imperceptible Life” offers yet another artistic reflection on the theme of chaos and order, and how human perception and emotion relate to it.

As a whole, “Mt. Hadamard National Park” thus not merely mirrors natural phenomena but transforms them in ways that are emotionally evocative: the complexity and apparent arbitrariness of Puech’s compositions reveal an underlying beauty that is equal parts haunting and comforting.

MATTHIAS PUECH – Mt. Hadamard National Park (Part 1) (HG2302)

What happened?
   We don't know exactly
   Of course, there are rumors and echoes
   But they are perhaps only reminiscences
   Time and space seem out of tune
   Behaviors have also changed
   But still, the Danube doesn’t stop flowing.

With this piece, the author wanted to translate a precise feeling that cradled the 10-day residency in the small village of Port Cetate, in Romania: a strange feeling of the end of the world, with a historically low water level that prevented navigation on the Danube, a very
prevalent animal kingdom, few humans, the impression of evolving either in the past or in the future but certainly not in the present.

Sound piece commissioned by SEMI SILENT in the frame of SONIC FUTURE RESIDENCIES 2023.

Recordings, composition and mixing by Jeanne Debarsy for SEMI SILENT.

Voices: Jasmina Al-Qaisi, Lloyd Dunn, Catalin Matei, Pablo Sanz, Veronika Svobodova.

Co-produced by Babelfish, 2023.

Stereo piece ; Duration : 14min14sec

MAYBE NOTHING De Jeanne Debarsy

FUJI||||||||||TA, MMM, LP
Hallow Ground
Vinyl / digital, catalogue nr. HG2403
Ltd. purple vinyl / digital
Release date 18. April 2024

FUJI||||||||||TA returns to Hallow Ground with his second full-length for the Swiss label after it had released his international breakthrough album »iki« in early 2020. Active since 2006, the Japanese composer and sound artist has become prolific since the release of »iki,« releasing a slew of records while also touring the world. His new album »MMM« is Yosuke Fujita’s most complex so far. Changing the set-up of his pipe organ by switching to an electric air pump allowed him to activate new sonic and compositional potentials of the instrument, while he also expanded upon his experiments with his own voice. »MMM« is a masterpiece of conceptual and formal rigour—a testament to how multi-layered and versatile the music of FUJI||||||||||TA can be. 

Previous releases had already showcased Fujita's interest in working with the rhythmic potentials of the organ he built himself in 2009. Replacing its hand-operated air pump with an electric one allowed him to work with it more freely and simultaneously record its sounds. This marked the starting point for the opener »M-1,« for which he recorded the pipes by waving a gun microphone close to it, thus creating shifting rhythmic patterns. The piece engages in a perpetual play of repetition and difference, balancing sonic intensity with compositional dramaturgy. For »M-2,« the artist uses his voice and works with a singing technique he has developed over more than a decade: constantly exhaling and inhaling, he puts a strain on his internal organs in order to create what he calls a »third voice.« The resulting piece is built on a throbbing rhythmic foundation topped by wordless melodies.

»M-3« closes the album as a synthesis of these two pieces, but is far more than the mere sum of its parts. The subtle tonal shifts of the organ take on a more subdued role this time, and Fujita’s scat growling and singing reappears in processed form. »M-3« combines the rhythms and melodies of the previous pieces to let something entirely new emerge out of them, much like the album is based on perpetual changes and recombinatory strategies. In fact, Fujita explains, the acronymic title can be read in many ways: this album is minimalistic, but freely mixes and mingles different materials in magical and even metaphorical ways while also paying its dues to his wife and daughter—M. and M. Just like its title can mean a lot of different things, »MMM« itself is ever-evolving, traversing different moods and opening itself up to a plethora of interpretations at each of its many turns.

FUJI||||||||||TA  -  M-3

SIMINA OPRESCU, Sound of Matter, LP
Hallow Ground
Vinyl / digital, catalogue nr. HG2402, EAN: 0602343041803

Tracklist:
1. Sound of Matter I (16:16)
2. Sound of Matter II (19:19)

Credits:
Composed, mixed, and written in Berlin, December 2022 – February 2023 by Simina Oprescu
Mastering by Lawrence English
Master cut by Andreas Lupo Lubich
Artwork by Laurin Huber
Essay by Simina Oprescu

Sound of Matter

Simina Oprescu - Sound of Matter II (excerpt) (HG2402)

Improvised piece using the Make Noise 0-coast , Triple Expresso expression pedal interface, micro cassette recorder, reverb and delay pedals, Alimba resonator, and Sniff-EM electromagnetic pickup. Recorded live in one take.

Encounter with The Krell

Le rossignol

Il est 22h, les insectes qui faisaient un boucan monstre toute la journée avec leurs vols, vrombissements et stridulations ont fini par se poser et se taire. C'est enfin le silence sur la Réserve des hauts plateaux du Vercors.
Ce silence devenu si rare dans notre société.
Je me suis installé confortablement dans une petite clairière, les micros sont prêts... Quand j'entends au loin un animal volant qui s'approche avec un drôle de bruit. Un cri qui me fait penser à une chauve-souris, mais la silhouette en vol que j’entraperçois en est assez loin (plus gros, vol plus direct...). Bref, j'ai eu la chance de d'être survolé par un OVNI et, en plus, je l'ai enregistré 🥰 !
Après partage sur les réseaux, j’apprends que cet animal extraordinaire est en fait une bécasse des bois. Mais ça, ce sont les spécialistes qui le disent, moi, je préfère continuer à croire que c'était un OVNI, un oiseau volant non identifié... !

Oiseau volant non identifié

Une ville quelque part en France. C'est un geste de tendresse pour la vie, la poésie du quotidien dans ses infinies variations, ses mille détails. Une pièce qui épouse la forme, la rondeur des jours dont parle Jean Giono. Dans ce cycle, à contre-courant de cette volupté, surgit l'anormal, l'arythmie quand le quotidien n'est plus possible.

Un documentaire réalisé et écrit de façon collective et spontanée par Nicolas Cohu, Sidonie Gaulin, Odilon Gournay, Ilan Gratini, Ingrid Obled, Juliette Rillard, Elven Sicard et Anissa Zidna accompagnés par Benoît Bories – Juin 2025 à Arles. 


Nous marcherons posément vers les fontaines dans l'ombre profonde de la nuit

𝒔𝒖𝒓 𝒍𝒂 𝒕𝒐𝒖𝒄𝒉𝒆
documentaire de création, réalisé en 2018
Prix Phonurgia nova "archives de la paroles" 2018

--

 J’ai décidé il y a quelques mois lorsque mon père, contrebassiste classique professionnel, m’a annoncé arrêter son métier, de commencer à l’enregistrer. Une fois par mois.
Je m’étais promis l’année précédente, lorsque les médecins ont diagnostiqué sa maladie de Charcot, de tout faire pour l’aider à garder un lien avec la musique, le plus longtemps possible. Depuis, il a vendu tous ses instruments, donné toutes ses partitions, fait disparaître tout ce qui à mes yeux était constitutif de l’homme qu’il est.
Aujourd’hui je prends conscience qu’à travers ces enregistrements, ce n’est pas le contrebassiste que je cherche à rencontrer mais le père que je pensais connaître, et que pour le laisser venir à moi, je dois le laisser me parler de contrebasse.

--

Réalisation, prise de son, montage et mixage –  Antoine Richard

Avec  le regard fraternel de  –  Jules Ribis

Avec les voix de (par ordre d’apparition) – Marjolaine Richard, Alain Auxemery, Benoit Richard, Toshinori Uetani, Antoine Richard, les musiciens de l’Orchestre Poitou-Charentes, Christophe Lemarec, Jean Auray, Anne Aubert, Max Bertrand.

Et le chant de la contrebasse à 5 cordes de Benoit Richard, 75ème instrument du luthier Jean Auray.

Musiques composées par – Benoit Richard
Arrangements – Anne Aubert
interprétées par – Philippe Ferro, Annie Bertrand, Catherine Ribrault, Solon Douligeris, Francois Xavier Bouton, Didier Plisson, Laurent Desvignes, Paul Fourcher, Eric Chavinay, Thierry Guibert, Alain Auxemery, Cecile Mardikian, Christine Tessier, Emmanuelle Benyahia Kouider, et Ivan Gélugne.

Dessin au fusain – Jean-Pierre Loizeau
Réalisé en 2018 avec le soutient de la Scam* et du dispositif « Brouillon d’un rêve sonore »

www.antoinerichard.fr

Sur la touche

Gateway

Un tressage délicat de récits : des souvenirs marquants de l’autrice, des récits mythologiques et des parcours de vie d’habitant·es d'Awra Amba, une communauté en Éthiopie. Cet entremêlement alchimique fait naître un espace temps original où se déploie une quête personnelle et universelle autour des thèmes du conflit, de la rupture, du vivre ensemble.


Synopsis : 

« Je me souviens de ces longues journées d'été pluvieuses passées à regarder par la fenêtre. L'image du monde extérieur se mélangeait étrangement au reflet de mon visage dans la vitre.

Je savais déjà qu'un jour il me faudrait m’arracher à cet univers restreint et marcher longtemps pour que les histoires de ce monde ne me soient plus si étrangères. Je savais qu'il me faudrait absorber de nombreux récits de tous bords et de tout temps, être patiente, vivre des ruptures et continuer pourtant, observer la différence, apprendre à l'apprécier. 

C'est ce que je fis un jour sur les chemins d'Ethiopie, dans une communauté hors du commun nommée Awra Amba. »

_____


Réalisation : Jeanne Debarsy
Avec les voix de Zumra, Tsedek, Aguere, Asmamacho, Derese.
Traduction : Teddy et Katia Girma
Voix de la traduction : Axelle Thiry
Musique originale : Daniel Perez Hajdu
Visuel : Jonathan Ortegat

Une production Babelfish asbl, réalisée grâce au soutien de Brouillon d’un rêve de la Scam et du dispositif "La Culture avec la Copie Privée", au fonds Gulliver et à la bourse Artichock du Bureau International Jeunesse, avec le soutien de l’ACSR.

Merci aux oreilles extérieures : Aurélie Brousse, Maël Lagadec, Jonathan Ortegat, Eric Pauwels, Christophe Rault, Gabriel Vanderpas, Ecaterina Vidick, Delphine Wil.

Gateway

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