Bernard Grancher’s “Soleil Gris Eclatant” was recorded at the same sessions as the sold out “Avenugle Etincelle” album (CiS052) from earlier this year. However, Bernard feels the LP has a much darker side.
He explains:
“Soleil Gris Eclatant was recorded under the same conditions as the Auveugle Etincelle cassette. However, it has a much darker side; it is a kind of logical continuation but in the burying of the ego and all the aspects which make the depreciation of the personality after a wounding episode in the personal life…
“The material used for the recording is in the image of this dark mood: the synthesizers are at the end of their life and are synchronized with the rhythm machines with difficulty, the tape recorders are atony and idle causing suffocating soundscapes.
“And despite everything, the music starts almost alone, as if moved by the residual force of these old machines which still testify to their loyalty to prove that they still have things to tell.
“Soleil Gris Eclatant tells a secret story; that of its author and the symbiosis which links him to his almost lifeless machines. It is the story of this light which arises from this marriage between the dressed man and the dying machines. A gray light but yet dazzling and hypnotic, a light that invites you to look it in the face to better penetrate you and live a little inside you.
“Who will listen to this curious sound testimony…”
The album is pressed on beautiful black and white splatter vinyl with luscious sci-fi artwork from Nick Taylor. All copies include two double sided art prints and all is housed in a plastic folder.
Review for “Avenugle Eticelle”:
Bernard Grancher’s sublime Aveugle Etincelle. Surrounded by artwork in homage to early-80s post-punk and industrial greyness, this 9-track 49-minute cassette (with download) collection mines rich seams of murkily-mesmeric electronic sounds; sometimes serenely suggesting how Brian Eno might have remoulded Kraftwerk’s Radio-Activity and at other times imagining early-Cabaret Voltaire reworking Tom Baker-era Doctor Who soundtracks.
Adrian, Concrete islands