released February 11, 2024
For the duo with Christophe Bailleau, ever-prolific Julien Ash abandons his Nouvelles Lectures Cosmopolites moniker for once. But they're actually more than a duo, not only because they are supported by various musicians – including Aloïs L. on saxophone and François Porte on flute, well-known from previous releases by Nouvelles Lectures Cosmopolites – , but also because they are joined by vocalist Jordane Prestrot on three tracks.
While many track titles, shifting between English, French, and Japanese, evoke liquidity and water, the surrealist artwork by Christophe Bailleau seems to depict life forms suspended between earth and sky, but also in intermediate states between plant, animal, mineral, and perhaps something different altogether. Everything about this album seems to be about metamorphosis between different states of being, and the music, morphing from rhythmic to atmospheric, from instrumental to vocal, from dark to light (and back and forth again), confirms this.
File under: ambient, psychedelic, electronica, neoclassical
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NOCOVISION
the squeaking of a heart... Screaming (again) (always) (desperately?)!!! Making one's own the idea that our desires for these other things could finally be (temporarily) satisfied thanks to the immersive favor of an inspired, mischievous saxophone (Ocean of Sadness).
A sonic odyssey more than a hundred leagues from a hypothetical shore, EKITAI-ON-KEIHO possesses all the attributes of a domestic object, but definitively elusive (The Property).
A true generational crossover, without seeming troubled, we witness (bewildered) the possible reconciliation of a lost TIMEWIND (Klaus Schulze) levitating uncertainly, with these mobile, moving, and willing architectures (The Road To The Seashore), a multifaceted, learned emulsion.
Stubborn musicians, driven by extreme, extraordinary demands and limits, Julien Ash & Christophe Bailleau assert this as much in their personal work as with this formidable encounter, 50/50 according to Christophe Bailleau, a timeless eclecticism, erected without harmful compromise - Do we have the absolute certainty that this is where the stakes of a future reside? The piano notes of "Prisoner Of The Sky" are positively a draft of an answer, akin to a crack in the binders and the removal of our abhorrent tab manipulators. A significant validation of a featuring scattered across three tracks of the album, Jordane Prestrot is not one to decline an opportune invitation to cast a different gaze.
If this is how "Reflux" initially scatters a myriad of sparks, there are tense turnarounds for which all prevention remains ineffective, a few salvaging notes reminiscent of a koto ?
Game of contrasts, of latent soundscapes, endlessly intertwining "Hippocampe" unfolds a contained power, we are so close and yet so far from the surface.
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Inspiring, expiring, "Das See" sows doubt, the ultimate test, the friendly artifices of a conventional, conflicting rhythm, questioning preamble... a fundamental ?
www.nocovision.com/2024/02/christophe-bailleau-julien-ash-ekitai.html
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BAD ALCHEMY
JULIEN ASH (Nouvelles Lectures Cosmopolites), zuletzt mit Christophe Petchanatz (Klimperei) und „Ciel de Mouches“ bei AC zu hören, wo er bereits mit NLC & Grosso Gadgetto oder Innocent But Guilty willkommen war, hat bei Ekitai-On-Keiho (ACU 1062) CHRISTOPHE BAILLEAU an der Seite. Einen Landsmann und multimedialen Künstler mit Lebensmittelpunkt in Belgien, der mit Arden auf Stilll zu hören war, mit Michel Delville (The Wrong Object) in The Gödel Codex, mit Billy Hasni als Prism. Hier gibt er mit seinem Artwork der Musik ein Image, und sich dabei als Surrealist zu erkennen. Aloïs L. ist mit Altosax, François Porte mit Querflöte homöopathisch eingemischt, Jordane Prestrot vokalisiert bei 'Prisoner of the Sky', 'Reflux' und 'Das See'. Zuvor schon hatten 'Ocean of Sadness' und 'The Road to the Seashore' die Blicke und die Schritte meerwärts gerichtet, 'Hippocampe', Seepferdchen, taucht darin ein. Beats verwirbeln mit Breaks und Shuffling, pulsend und mit brausendem Zug die ambiente Anmutung, die von Drones, Loops, Bassgebrumm und träumerischer, gläserner Klimperei ausgeht. Der japan. Titel, frz. Alerte sonore liquide, lässt sich als Flüssigkeitsalarm ergooglen, Baill-eau speist zu den morphenden Klangbildern das Auge mit Kugel-, Ei- und Tropfenformen, geflammten und floralen, einer xenobiologischen Seeanemone, einer 'Kartoffelkäfer'-Zecke, einem psychedelischen 'Kobra'-Gewächs.
www.badalchemy.de
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DE SUBJECTIVISTEN
Het geweldige Franse project N.L.C., ofwel Nouvelles Lectures Cosmopolites, van Julien Ash is aan een heuse comeback bezig, waarbij de ene na de andere release van zijn hand verschijnt. Er is dan ook een hiaat tussen 2007 en 2021. Dit project is van industriële gitaarmuziek naar een bonte kruisbestuiving van middeleeuws en klassiek getinte muziek, ambient, wereldmuziek en zelfs pop en trip hop geëvolueerd. Daarnaast is hij te vinden in Maelstrøm en A Sparrow Grass Hunt. Maar ook solo heeft Julien Ash, tevens een alias, nog wel eens van zich laten horen. Na een soloalbum uit 1991 is dat vorig jaar nog met Christophe Petchanatz van onder meer Klimperei en het jaar daarvoor met Pete Swinton, hetgeen een digitale release betrof. Nu is hij terug met de Franse, maar in België woonachtige multimedia artiest Christophe Bailleau. Die laatste brengt sinds 2003 veelal iets tussen ambient, glitch en experimentele muziek. Samen brengen ze nu EKITAI-ON-KEIHO uit, waarop ze in bijna 42 minuten 7 tracks voorbij laten komen. Hierbij krijgen ze steun van zanger Jordane Prestrot, Aloïs L. op altsaxofoon en François Porte op dwarsfluit, Zorg met noises en A Limb met drumprogrammering. In één track hoor je ook nog een Nederlandse stem, die volgens mij van Liesbeth Houdijk (A Sparrow Grass Hunt, Tiramist, Hide & Seek) is. Ze hebben een conceptalbum gemaakt dat draait om de metamorfose tussen verschillende staten van zijn. Ook de muziek verandert steeds, waardoor genres als ambient, industrial, psychedelische muziek, experimentele elektronica en neoklassiek in elkaar vervloeien en laveren tussen donker en licht. Het is een biologerend hoorspel, waar je nooit helemaal de vinger op kunt leggen en waar de productie soms in handen van David Lynch lijkt te liggen. Op de hoes prijken de fraaie, ietwat surrealistische afbeeldingen van Bailleau. Prachtig totaalkunstwerk.
subjectivisten.nl/het-schaduwkabinet-week-09-2024
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VITAL WEEKLY
On CDR, we find a collaborative work between Julien Ash, who resurfaced after years of silence. Before he worked at Nouvelles Lectures Cosmopolites, I don’t know what made him decide between using his real name and the band name. He works here with Christophe Bailleau, better known as Glyth and La Chiesa, a long time ago and someone from whom I last heard music many years ago. There are various guest musicians on this album, but only one makes it to the front cover, ‘feat. Joradane Prestrot’, responsible for vocals. Probably not all of them, as there are male and female ones, in various languages, English, French, Japanese and even Dutch (no credit there). No instruments are listed on the cover, but it’s not rocket science to know we’re dealing here with synthesisers, samplers, drum machines, and sound effects. The music is very ambient but also very musically conventional at times. These two men play, at times, very melodic stuff; the way the saxophone is used in the opening track, ‘Ocean Of Sadness’, reminded me of the time when The Legendary Pink Dots had a saxophone player. Also, other pieces sound like a Pink Dots track, waiting for a vocalist (for instance, in ‘Reflux’). Rhythms are sometimes used, adding a bit of spice into the ambience matter here to prevent the listener from drifting away. The music is atmospheric but not necessarily dark, as atmospheric and dark don’t always go together. There is also lightness in this piece next to its moodier textures. The production is top-shelf, with lots of clarity, exciting changes, and a wonderful CD.
www.vitalweekly.net/number-1427/
