Exquise Esquisse – Dans Le Noir

Exquise Esquisse – Dans Le Noir – Cassette/Download – Ominous Recordings – 2020.

https://ominousrecordings.bandcamp.com/

https://ominousrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/dans-le-noir

https://naughty1.bandcamp.com/music

          1.    Personne Ne Peut Nous Voir.

          2.    Personne Ne Peut Nous Entendre.

One of my current themes is examining the noise work of some of my Facebook contacts, I want to know more about what they do, it’s a closer look at my online community, I have examined several already over the last two weeks. The person behind this Paris, France based HNW project was formerly behind a project called Naughty, I believe this is now their main project. By the time this review goes up, I am sure that the cassettes will have sold out.

A Thick wall of tone and distortion immediately forms Personne Ne Peut Nous Voir. The lead tone is bass heavy, it warbles and pulsates slowly. Subtle crackling distortion is overlaid onto this. The overall sound appears dense, but the faltering and crackling carve shifting detail into this sound continually. The faltering aspect of the sound is continuous but has an unevenness upon finer detail as does the crackle, so there appears to be repetition, yet there really isn’t. Brief accelerations drive the sound, always there, however, at different times they are more obvious and at others just carefully pulled to the background. The shifts within the track are so carefully done, it is hard to pick up on them, it takes several listens and a lot of concentration. This is done by shifts in the speed of movement, changes to the frequency of cut/faltering and alterations to the clarity of the crackling. During the latter part of the track, a more aggressive hum becomes prominent, this seems to thicken the density of the overall sound. As things increasingly faulter in the sound, it is suddenly dead.

Personne Ne Peut Nous Entendre is built on a deeper, bass heavy tone overlaid with different frequencies of cracked sharper toned noise.  This work feels as if it is being continually stripped, pieces of it ripped off and rebuilt through the prominent low hum which is more aggressively prominent here. This also has a more active wave faltering that makes the levels very uneven as they continually shift. At times small repetitions of the shifts in bass are made so the project throbs a rhythm, but this just quickly disappears every time I begin to notice and we are left with the random shifts and movements of the sound. The end of this work is signified by a sudden noticeable increase in how the sound revs before it finishes.

Dans Le Noir as an album really pulls the listener in, as your attention shifts you are taken on a journey through the different aspects of the overall sound. The contradictions within it are intriguing, this has a powerful sound with delicate shifts and changes. It is also a recording that I very much enjoyed and is overall good wall work.

Nevis Kretini 2020.