In stock
LP
Thierry MONNIER – Bruce RUSSELL
“Les Français sont les ennemis du Pacifique”
1.
Together with Thierry, just before his departure, we, some of his close friends, decided to realise this record. A promise and a desire to be able to listen to these electric exchanges engraved on vinyl. This record was made possible thanks to a subscription and various donations. Any profits from sales will be donated to 102 rue d'Alembert in Grenoble.
2.
For many he was the person at the other end of the phone or email at Metamkine’s. For others he was the voice of experimental music on Radio Campus and an imaginative, considerate and tenacious programmer at Le 102 in Grenoble. He also was this diligent companion with whom to attend festivals, share enthusiasm about a performance, or the beer and conversation we’d rather have during the next one. He additionally was the hands and brains of Doubtful Sounds, the catalogue of which label demonstrates the highest of eclectic standards, the will to support comrade artists to the further end of their experimentations, and an authentic passion for the record medium. Lastly, he was of course one of the two guitars of Sun Stabbed, a member of La Morte Young, and a solo artist we would not have mind getting more performances and record releases from. In those, he was exploring the possibilities of the prepared guitar with modesty and an infinite patience, occasionally combining it with dictaphone or Revox-size magnetic tape.
[…]
While he would appear as an indoorsy creature, Thierry had developed a passion for New-Zealand that fed off a combine taste for geography, anthropology, and the very distinctive manner of handling guitars that a handful of experimenters have developed since the 1990s. This other side of the world had become the destination of some of his travels, and Bruce Russell (The Dead C), Michael Morley (The Dead C, Gate) or Stefan Neville (Pumice) some of his friends, with whom to spend some time, share an improvisation, or work on a record project.
[…]
For all of us who were around until the end, these notes and gritty vibrations sound even stranger. They resonate with the serenity and temperance with which he was able to reassure us even more than we were able to support him. They resonate with his curiosity and his ability to pick up significance in the detail of a sound, a sentence, or a landscape, against the vast inanity of the world. Thierry had dedicated a lot of his life, attention, and intelligence to music, but he knew, in the end, that music is not that important. Thierry had chosen music as a way of making his own way, building friendships, keeping away from the thickheadedness and lack of imagination of a failing capitalist society. Thierry had chosen guitar against the macho and egotistic postures, just to share his wonderment when a little (or a lot) of electric magic gets out of it. I believe he would have appreciated that some of his relation to life would be seen in his relation to the instrument.
Poroporoaki, Teremoana.
Pali Meursault
(Profile published in Revue & Corrigée #122, September 2022)
3.
Thierry loved New Zealand, and even seemed to find New Zealanders pretty agreeable. Although we first met in France, I'd seen him in NZ a couple of times, so when he suggested we use his summer 2020 visit to record some material it seemed like a nice plan. Of course I had no idea what was ahead. The recording was done in the new sleep-out/studio we had recently finished in the back yard, a simple process that took about an hour. Thierry had to get to grips with the amplifier I lent him, which was not quite what he was used to, but I thought he got some great sounds out of it in the end. After he left for the North Island, COVID suddenly became a massive problem, and he was very lucky to get home before we locked up the whole country for months. But then he got sick again with something much worse than COVID, and it turned out that these sessions were actually a memorial to his last visit to the Antipodes. An entirely fitting memorial to a great friend of New Zealand, and I'm proud to say, a friend of mine too.
Bruce Russell, Lyttelton, Easter 2023
18,00€
In stock
LP
Thierry MONNIER
“Loose Connection”
Limited edition of 100 copies. Includes 2 postcards.
Work from this French guitarist has been reviewed before, primarily his work with Sun Stabbed and the, quite frankly brilliant named La Morte Young, but also a solo release (Vital Weekly 1095). The previous one was primarily electronic, but he solely uses an electric guitar for this new one. "This LP present tracks recorded at home for the neighbourhood pleasure during lockdown", and unfortunately, no reactions from the said neighbourhood were captured. However, I would not have minded hearing some responses, as Monnier's music isn't altogether easy listening. At times quite noise-based with lots of feedback thrown around, but it is not just about feedback. I believe all this is improvisation, yet none of this is quite regular. Monnier lets his guitar burn and rip, explode, but also the music finds its way through the tall grass, approaching you like a deadly snake. Sometimes the guitar is an object, such as in the opening piece, 'Baryon'. Sometimes there are bunches of stabs and loosely notes or heavy wails of distortion. This makes the album (eight songs in total, one extra as a bonus digitally) quite varied, which I think is a great thing. If these pieces had been too similar, the music would lose some of its raw power, whatever Monnier chose to play. Now, with all the variations, the music held my interest throughout. Monnier delivers a record here that is very unusual; not improvisation, noise, or electro-acoustic music, it is a bit of everything, and that is the beauty of it. - Vital Weekly 1342
21,00€
In stock
LP
FUSILLER
“Le monde supérieur”
Fusiller is Jo from [Tanzprocesz] label. He's also half of Opéra Mort (with Èlg) half of Femme (with Arno Bruil) and a third of Reine d'Angleterre (with Èlg and Ghédalia Tazartès).
Fusiller does music with crafted electronic instruments of his own. His work is chirurgical, precise with everything under control. Nothing is unnecessary.
From some underground world, I hear a debate within GRM pioneers.
Pierre Schaeffer : " I like this succession of miniatures, it sounds like études, but it’s all electronic, such a shame"
Bernard Parmegiani : "I wonder why I didn’t use this kind of voices in L’enfer ?"
François Bayle : "Here is a composer"
Luc Ferrari : "Oh, there is some kind of humour here !"
Pierre Henry : " Well, I’ve done better work"
**
Behind the name Fusiller we find Jo, who runs the Tanzprocesz label. He is also one half of Opéra Mort, Femme and one third of Reine d'Angleterre. However, the latter may not be an ongoing concern anymore since the passing of Ghedalia Tazartes. Fusiller created his own electronic instruments and loves to edit his music until whatever is there is necessary. There is a funny little text on Bandcamp about this LP (or 12"? It spins at 45 rpm, but still is about 32 minutes), with imaginary quotes from French luminaries from the world of electronic music. The two Pierre's, Paremgiani, Bayle and Ferrari, perhaps indicate that we should see the pieces in that tradition and not in the tradition of noise music. You could easily think that some of this music is in that tradition of noise music, but this is not your (standard?) noise wall type. For one, this is not something that deals only with heavy noise. It also works with very brief pieces of music. In the download, they are cut together as one track but listen to the record, and you'll notice that each piece is a rounded thing by itself. Fusiller uses organ-like sounds, as drones as rapid arpeggio's (none of the pieces have a title, so I can only say, 'that bit on side 2'). Still, there are oscillating sounds and sine waves, and the record again goes into total noise territory, microphone and voice abuse. Why not an imaginary quote from Henry Chopin (not connected to GRM, but surely in his tradition). A noise track like this can be thirty seconds before it leaps back into the controlled chaos of modular electronics. It's hard to say if the people at GRM might laugh at this, dismiss or applaud it. If I'm honest, I'd say, why would Fusiller care what they think? Or I, for that matter? Oh, right, they do care what I say, as I got the promo. I very much enjoyed this LP (12"?) for its brief character. Miniatures or etudes, whatever you wish to call these, Fusiller aims and shoots all the time, bull's eye. (FdW)
VITAL WEEKLY issue 1314
17,00€
In stock
LP
SUN STABBED
“In Girum Imus Nocte Et Consumimur Igni”
"It has been roughly a decade since this French duo of gnarled guitar enthusiasts last surfaced as Sun Stabbed and I have certainly missed them, though Thierry Monnier and Pierre Faure's similarly excellent La Morte Young project helped fill the void nicely. Aside from the different line-ups, the main difference between the two projects is that this one is kind of a direct homage to some of New Zealand's most iconic purveyors of blacked drones and noisy guitars. While no discussion of that subject would be complete without Campbell Kneale, it is The Dead C and the woefully underheard Surface of the Earth that explicitly provide the most inspiration here. Characteristically, Monnier and Faure are admirably up to the task of continuing that fine tradition, as In Girum Imus Nocte Et Consumimur Igni is a feast of manipulated feedback, burned-out wreckage, and simmering drones. Occasionally it can be eerily beautiful and haunting, but I also like the parts that resemble an onstage brawl between Skullflower and Sunn O))). This is an instant noise/drone guitar classic."
Brainwashed
16,00€
Out of stock
LP
MARIACHI
“s/t”
Mariachi is the solo project of the french guitarist Nina Garcia. She played with bands such as Mamiedragon and Quincho B! but also in duo with Maria Bertel or Augustin Bette.
This LP was recorded by Frédéric Alstadt in the Brasserie Atlas, Bruxelles, in march 2018.
16,50€
In stock
CD
LA MORTE YOUNG
“A Quiet – Earthquake Style”
La Morte Young is a supergroup including the members of the bands Nappe, Sun Stabbed and Talweg. Their first studio album, released 5 years ago, has been acclaimed by some press and has also been tip of the tongue of the now defunct Volcanic tongue mailorder.
A Quiet – Earthquake Style is the second studio album by La Morte Young, recorded during a residency in november 2015 at GRIM in Marseille.
It’s always hard to describe a record when you are part of it, so here is a the thoughts of Stefan Neville (Pumice, Olympus, ...) while listening to it : « This is an unpleasant, confusing & transcendental new record by some very heavy french bastards. It is destructive & haunted & ridiculous. Side one begins with cold violent ripping splatter. Almost rock music but tortured & distressed like a tough metal buffoon falling over wearing dangerous nail studded armbands tumbling & screaming down the steps of an infinity dungeon, into an open sewer where his bullet belt short circuits the worlds electricity & his shitty corpse gets boiled up into a spiritual paste of false hope. On side two we hear a duet between apocalyptic wind & some bulldozers. Cannons are fired into the ocean and a chorus of concussed whale's reply unhappily. Then the world dies and robot scanners on autopilot move in to forever check the pulse of the rubble & giggle amongst themselves for eternity. None of this feels like mere humans playing instruments to me. It is a huge, terrifying, obscene & hilarious record... »
For whom think that Sunn O))), the Dead C and François Bayle are also ridiculous and hilarious.
CD version exists in red or blue Riso cover.
11,00€
In stock
LP
LA MORTE YOUNG
“A Quiet – Earthquake Style”
La Morte Young is a supergroup including the members of the bands Nappe, Sun Stabbed and Talweg. Their first studio album, released 5 years ago, has been acclaimed by some press and has also been tip of the tongue of the now defunct Volcanic tongue mailorder.
A Quiet – Earthquake Style is the second studio album by La Morte Young, recorded during a residency in november 2015 at GRIM in Marseille.
It’s always hard to describe a record when you are part of it, so here is a the thoughts of Stefan Neville (Pumice, Olympus, ...) while listening to it : « This is an unpleasant, confusing & transcendental new record by some very heavy french bastards. It is destructive & haunted & ridiculous. Side one begins with cold violent ripping splatter. Almost rock music but tortured & distressed like a tough metal buffoon falling over wearing dangerous nail studded armbands tumbling & screaming down the steps of an infinity dungeon, into an open sewer where his bullet belt short circuits the worlds electricity & his shitty corpse gets boiled up into a spiritual paste of false hope. On side two we hear a duet between apocalyptic wind & some bulldozers. Cannons are fired into the ocean and a chorus of concussed whale's reply unhappily. Then the world dies and robot scanners on autopilot move in to forever check the pulse of the rubble & giggle amongst themselves for eternity. None of this feels like mere humans playing instruments to me. It is a huge, terrifying, obscene & hilarious record... »
For whom think that Sunn O))), the Dead C and François Bayle are also ridiculous and hilarious.
LP version includes 2 postcards.
16,00€
Out of stock
LP
Yandsen YONG
“Disillusion”
Yong Yandsen is a musician from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He’s a member of Emacm / SiCKL, collectives promoting avant-garde and experimental music and expressions in Malaysia. Some may know his name from the Shang compilation, released on Xing-Wu, with two other artists from Malaysia. He did compose a piece for guitar, which was his first instrument that he drop for tenor saxophone some years ago. With his tenor you can find him on various recordings from the band Klangmutationen, but this is his first solo. 7 improvisations recorded over a period of two years in Cheras, KL. Free tenor sax with strong breath and playing with pitch in a lyrical style that make Yandsen related to Albert Ayler, Kaoru Abe or Masayoshi Urabe. Black vinyl limited to 300 copies. Mastering by Giuseppe Ielasi. Artwork by Loïc Verdillon.
Original price was: 16,00€.10,00€Current price is: 10,00€.
In stock
LP
LA MORTE YOUNG – DRONE ELECTRIC LUST
A split with La Morte Young and Drone Electric Lust.
File under psychedelic rock, experimental, drone.
La Morte Young is the meeting of Talweg (Eric Lombaert, drums + Joelle Vinciarelli, voice) + Nappe (Christian Malfray, electronics + Pierre Faure, electric guitar and tape delay) + Sun Stabbed (the same Pierre Faure + Thierry Monnier, electric guitar and tapes). Recorded live at 102, Grenoble, in May 2014 by Pali Meursault.
Drone Electric Lust is Kjell Runar Jenssen, drums, electronics + Lasse Marhaug, electronics + Per Gisle Galåen and Fredrik Ness Sevendal, guitars.
A coproduction between Doubtful Sound, Apartment Records, Dysmusie, Pica Disk, Killer, Up Against the Wall, Motherfuckers!
File under psychedelic rock, experimental, drone.
La Morte Young is the meeting of Talweg (Eric Lombaert, drums + Joelle Vinciarelli, voice) + Nappe (Christian Malfray, electronics + Pierre Faure, electric guitar and tape delay) + Sun Stabbed (the same Pierre Faure + Thierry Monnier, electric guitar and tapes). Recorded live at 102, Grenoble, in May 2014 by Pali Meursault.
Drone Electric Lust is Kjell Runar Jenssen, drums, electronics + Lasse Marhaug, electronics + Per Gisle Galåen and Fredrik Ness Sevendal, guitars.
A coproduction between Doubtful Sound, Apartment Records, Dysmusie, Pica Disk, Killer, Up Against the Wall, Motherfuckers!
17,00€
In stock
10"
ASTATINE – OGROB
“œil céleste”
This record is the result of a collaboration between Astatine aka Stéphane Récrosio, head of the Orgasm label since 1994 and Ogrob aka Sébastien Borgo, member of Micro_pénis and L’Autopsie A Révélé Que La Mort Etait Due A L’Autopsie. 6 compositions, created in 2014, mixing Astatine’s noise experimentations in Paris and Ogrob’s field recordings and short waves in Sydney, Australia and Tasmania.
Astagrob.
Astatine / Ogrob.
Digital precision / Lo-fi fog.
Junk sounds / Clean noise.
Field recordings / Kitchen utensils.
Collect / Rubbish tip.
Northern hemisphere / Souther hemisphere.
Astral / Holocaust.
Table of the elements / Elements on the table.
Postal card / Stamped cardboard.
Oeil Céleste.
Mastered by Nicolas Marmin. Transparent 10”. 200 numbered copies. Cardboard cover by Ogrob. Postcard by Astatine.
Astagrob.
Astatine / Ogrob.
Digital precision / Lo-fi fog.
Junk sounds / Clean noise.
Field recordings / Kitchen utensils.
Collect / Rubbish tip.
Northern hemisphere / Souther hemisphere.
Astral / Holocaust.
Table of the elements / Elements on the table.
Postal card / Stamped cardboard.
Oeil Céleste.
Mastered by Nicolas Marmin. Transparent 10”. 200 numbered copies. Cardboard cover by Ogrob. Postcard by Astatine.
13,50€
In stock
10"
PUMICE
“Some time ago, I got a message from Stefan Neville about this record: "I been working on some recording for you. some dumb punk slop and some tape loop soup and a pretty love song." I couldn’t describe the record better. It’s maybe the end of an era for Pumice with his 8 track pushed to its maximum limits and dying soon after these recordings were finished. So the result is maybe one of the noisier Pumice records to date... with a pretty love song. Recorded in june 2009 in Sandringham, Auckland, NZ. And mixed in January 2010 at Mainz. Black vinyl packed in black paper silkscreened by Cotoreich, with 2 postcards. Artwork by Stefan Neville. Mastering by Aigle noir. Limited to 500 copies.
10,00€
Out of stock
LP
MICRO_PENIS
“Tolvek”
“A second LP from Micro_Penis on doubtfulsounds, 2 years after the noteworthy first one. A second disc that nearly didn’t come out as two members spent long stays in the mental hospitals, so the band couldn’t record sessions. In addition to the heavy medication, those two members undertook therapeutic workshop with the artist Anne Zimmerman, where they expressed themselves. K. and S. revealed themselves through sculpture, using rubbish, and in particular vegetable peelings and stuff found in the hospital garbage bins. They made up several creatures, hybridization of sexual obsession and vegetable shape. Anne Zimmerman proposed to develop some of their work with rubber. Every copy of the "Tolvek" record (alsatian word for "moron") comes with one of them. Despite the repeated hospitalisations of K. and S. and the year-long meditative retreats in a Zen temple in the south of Italy of H. and O., the rare recording sessions which comprise this new album are the moments where the inner demons have got the upper hand over the fragile mental health of each member, transformed each time into an outlet, or, exorcism. Here is the sonic documentation of this. For horror movie, art brut, cruelty and cavalry lovers. Black vinyl and pro-printed cover, comes with a sexual rubber beast. Artwork by Michel Borgo. Mastering by Aigle noir. Limited to 300 copies.”
13,00€
In stock
LP
SUN STABBED
“Des lumières, des ombres, des figures”
“Sun Stabbed is a guitar duo formed at Grenoble in 2005. “Des lumières, des ombres, des figures” is the first LP of the band resulted from the first private session that has been recorded. This session happened in Le 102’s basement, the 11th February 2009. The editing / mixing / reworking has been done in 2010 after forgetting a little bit what was recorded. The music is maybe the most varied disc of the band so far, with some classic sun stabbed tracks (ambient / drone / noise) but also some sound “dérives”. One track has been issued on the “Inner ends of the coils” compilation edited by the label Nothing out there in 2010. Format : 12 inches black vinyl. The cover is a photo by Pierre-Olivier Arnaud. Mastering by Aigle noir. Limited to 300 copies.” label info
13,00€
In stock
LP
MICRO_PENIS
“Schlim”
Schlim (slime in alsatian dialect) Micro_penis’ third lp released by Doubtful Sounds, is the final instalment of a trilogy. This record is made from rare recording sessions, stretching in time from 2011 until 2015 at the N.E.M. Studio (Noise Ensemble of Mulhouse) located in the Mer Rouge building, Mulhouse, France. The name of the game, collectively agreed on, was that no band member could be chemically restrained. For a psychotic can only ever be himself freed from one’s treatment, thus expressing one’s inside kept insanity. Another rule stated that during each session, one would have to use a different instrument, be it acoustic or electronic, no matter wether mastered or not.
This huge interpersonal tension, through a violent rupture in terms of playing modes and tones, resulted in a broad range of pieces, very much dissmilar from one another.
Then the group switched to an autarkic mode for a couple of weeks. They finalized and gave birth to their new weird baby during endless listening sessions and mixing sessions including sonic tinkering that only those who do not pretend to be mad are capable of.
Cyclothymia and dementia are hidden in each sound, each track of Schlim.
Black vinyl with a postcard. Limited to 300 copies. Mastering by Frédéric Alstadt
14,00€
In stock
LP
FRANCE SAUVAGE
“Le monde des doigts”
Reissue from this CDR recorded in 2009.
France Sauvage is a quartet with Johann Mazé, Manuel Duval, Simon Poligné and Arno Bruil playing with sax, computer, drums, voice, keyboards, records…
Really nice work mixing idea from musique concrete, diy, impro, songs…
Coproduction with Tomaturj, Agraph’ Prod, Fougère, Doubtful Sounds, Fruqueupruk, Les Potagers Natures, KdB and Attila Tralala.
France Sauvage is a quartet with Johann Mazé, Manuel Duval, Simon Poligné and Arno Bruil playing with sax, computer, drums, voice, keyboards, records…
Really nice work mixing idea from musique concrete, diy, impro, songs…
Coproduction with Tomaturj, Agraph’ Prod, Fougère, Doubtful Sounds, Fruqueupruk, Les Potagers Natures, KdB and Attila Tralala.
12,00€
In stock
LP
Thierry MONNIER
“Temps Espace”
Temps Espace consists of two pieces of DIY “musique concrète”.
DIY because it was made outside of any academecism and done with the equipment that I owned at the time of the recordings, appropriate or not.
Two tracks Inter…, in-between : one composition, intermezzo, was done 14 years ago and the other one, interfluve, 2 years ago. The connection between those tracks is the original sound material which was recorded at about the same time (early 2000s).
Time and/or space are the central in the two compositions.
The first track result from the in-between from Deleuze and Guattari’s A thousand plateaus and the second one is taken from the space in between two talwegs.
One where the sound has been deteriorated through the mixing process of a cassette 4 tracks tape recorder and the other one where the erosion is the essential question.
But two tracks so different that they are separated on each side of the LP and with the recommendation to not listen to them one after the other.
300 copies black LP. Includes two postcards. Mastering by Giuseppe Ielasi. Artwork by Octobre.
DIY because it was made outside of any academecism and done with the equipment that I owned at the time of the recordings, appropriate or not.
Two tracks Inter…, in-between : one composition, intermezzo, was done 14 years ago and the other one, interfluve, 2 years ago. The connection between those tracks is the original sound material which was recorded at about the same time (early 2000s).
Time and/or space are the central in the two compositions.
The first track result from the in-between from Deleuze and Guattari’s A thousand plateaus and the second one is taken from the space in between two talwegs.
One where the sound has been deteriorated through the mixing process of a cassette 4 tracks tape recorder and the other one where the erosion is the essential question.
But two tracks so different that they are separated on each side of the LP and with the recommendation to not listen to them one after the other.
300 copies black LP. Includes two postcards. Mastering by Giuseppe Ielasi. Artwork by Octobre.
16,00€
In stock
LP
Pali MEURSAULT
“Offset”
From the label : “offset is the exploration of the soundscape of a printing workshop, a journey in the depth of the mechanical and industrial energy of rotary presses. Composed from field recordings made in two different printing facilities (in Grenoble and Paris from november 2011 to february 2012), the work is deliberately situated in between the sound document about the over-determined environment of a work place and the electroacoustic re-composition/manipulation. A series of variations on textures, rhythms, cycles and patterns formed by the producing and reproducing machines. Here, the soundscape is regarded as a social and cultural phenomenon as much as it is acoustic: the recorded matter is both the damaging and alienating by-product of the production process, and already holds a musical dimension, marked by a hundred years of mechanical fantasies, as cultivated by the Futurists, industrial music or techno. The issue, then, was to study how the noise of a machine becomes music as much as it was to understand how a musical culture produces an alternative listening of the environment. The first side of offset explores the rhythmic patterns of mechanical “cycles”; the second focuses on “fluxes” and continuous phenomena. Co-realised by universinternational and doubtful sounds. Black vinyl, limited to 300 copies. Mastering by Giuseppe Ielasi.”
From the artist : “This work is the result of a research about the mechanical sounds of printing machines. I was invited in two different printing workshops in Grenoble and Paris, where I’ve been listening and recording their rotary presses very closely. ’offset’ gathers a series of compositions created with this sound matter, electroacoustic variations exploring the rhythms, cycles, textures and musicality of the machines. A work that stands on the ambivalence between the alienating and the musical machine, and careful to lose any assumption…”
From the artist : “This work is the result of a research about the mechanical sounds of printing machines. I was invited in two different printing workshops in Grenoble and Paris, where I’ve been listening and recording their rotary presses very closely. ’offset’ gathers a series of compositions created with this sound matter, electroacoustic variations exploring the rhythms, cycles, textures and musicality of the machines. A work that stands on the ambivalence between the alienating and the musical machine, and careful to lose any assumption…”
16,00€