In stock
2 LP
PANCRACE
“The Fluid Hammer”
Music for Organous (spatialized and midi controlled pipe organ), Uilleann Pipes, Pi-Synth, Piano, Motorised Bow, Boîte à Bourdons, Gaida, Baroque Violin, Hurgy Toys, Toy Piano, Componium, Bodhran, Low Whistle, Bird Calls, AM-Radio and Shaker.
Pancrace is a quintet from France comprising Prune Bécheau, Arden Day, Julien Desailly, Léo Maurel and Jan Vysocky. Pancrace began with a residence in 2015 at the Saint Pancrace church in Dangolsheim where the instrument inventor Léo Maurel resides.
The approach of Pancrace is based on the physicality of sound, a choice of specific tone qualities within a given spatial contextual awareness. Therefore the manufacturing and usage of the musical instrument are constantly reassessed. Consequently, playing with the mechanical aspect of the instruments is central to their musical approach and narrative. Designing an unbound pipe organ – though emulating some of the mechanical idiomatics of the initial Pancrace church organ – seemed the obvious way to gain more spatial control over a vast choice of places. This allowed them to approach their music from a totally new angle and work from within the organ. The results of these experiments are captured here, on their second opus, Fluid Hammer.
“ During the 2017 OrgelFesl in Waldkirch, we discovered Wolfram Stuetzle’s workshop, he is a church organ maker. In his attic we discovered thousands of old pipes and other elements for organ making. It was here we had the idea we could one day have our own organ for Pancrace. Thanks to his help, we started to collect some parts in his attic. We also met another organ maker Stefan Freisen who gave us an old bellow which he used as a flower pot in his garden and I also bought some of his 80 year old electromagnets. In January 2018, we were all together in Marmoutier to discover the possibilities of MIDI controlled organs. A month later, the organ “ORGANOUS “ was built in my workshop.” – Léo Maurel
This new beast of an instrument, somewhere between a spider or an octopus, lead Pancrace to compose from the frontality of the instrument as well as with the interactive tone possibilities brought by other instruments. With its six panels display (two bass registers, two treble and a pair of crumhorns) the organ projects sound like the musique concrèt Acousmonium giving the listener a spatialised perception of a wide range of tones and harmonics. Unbounded, the pancrace people have achieved a whole new cosmos of sounds focusing on sources rather than reverberation. Here the ORGANOUS is both the process and the context.
Throughout the double albums 17 tracks one is exposed to a wide variety of Pancrace potential along with the sprinkled conversation with the makers of the water pumps, (reproduced in English inside the sleeve). At once playful, intriguing, surprising and warm this is an exceptional sonic experience from one of today’s most exceptional units.
25,00€
In stock
2 LP
PANCRACE
“Pancrace”
500 copies
Penultimate Press is proud to present the debut recording from French outfit Pancrace. Music for pipe organ Stiehr-Mockers 1848, Bird Calls, Baroque Violin, Tin Whistle, Boîtes à Bourdons, Landscape Piano, Motorised Bow, Standuino Pi Synth, Microphones, Hurgy Toys, AM radio, Church Bells, Uilleann Pipes and Hulusi. Pancrace is an improvising quintet comprising French, British and Austrian performers. The members include Prune Bécheau, Arden Day, Julien Desailly, Léo Maurel and Jan Vysocky. Pancrace is also the name of the church in Dangolsheim Alsace located next to where the instrument inventor Léo Maurel lives. Maurel makes ingeniously designed instruments inspired by the hurdy gurdy. The recording emerged from a disruption of the traditional elements within the church, namely the church organ which was prepared inside out whilst the performers challenged it’s gregarious authority with an array of constructed and modified instruments. In Pancrace one can hear many of these shape-shifting instruments and devices being twiddled without quite knowing which are bowed,
plucked, hammered or rubbed. The results are a maelstrom of sound and song which see-saw between the harrowing and the sublime with incredible detail to sonic content. Pancrace instigates proceedings in the confinement of an organ; a Cyclops puffing its continuous and raucous breath only to be woken by instruments who, like horseflies, mischievously start tormenting proceedings with microtones and striated polyrhythms. The journey ends four sides later with the language of the birds imposing an unadorned silence on the church.
Penultimate Press is proud to present the debut recording from French outfit Pancrace. Music for pipe organ Stiehr-Mockers 1848, Bird Calls, Baroque Violin, Tin Whistle, Boîtes à Bourdons, Landscape Piano, Motorised Bow, Standuino Pi Synth, Microphones, Hurgy Toys, AM radio, Church Bells, Uilleann Pipes and Hulusi. Pancrace is an improvising quintet comprising French, British and Austrian performers. The members include Prune Bécheau, Arden Day, Julien Desailly, Léo Maurel and Jan Vysocky. Pancrace is also the name of the church in Dangolsheim Alsace located next to where the instrument inventor Léo Maurel lives. Maurel makes ingeniously designed instruments inspired by the hurdy gurdy. The recording emerged from a disruption of the traditional elements within the church, namely the church organ which was prepared inside out whilst the performers challenged it’s gregarious authority with an array of constructed and modified instruments. In Pancrace one can hear many of these shape-shifting instruments and devices being twiddled without quite knowing which are bowed,
plucked, hammered or rubbed. The results are a maelstrom of sound and song which see-saw between the harrowing and the sublime with incredible detail to sonic content. Pancrace instigates proceedings in the confinement of an organ; a Cyclops puffing its continuous and raucous breath only to be woken by instruments who, like horseflies, mischievously start tormenting proceedings with microtones and striated polyrhythms. The journey ends four sides later with the language of the birds imposing an unadorned silence on the church.
26,00€