EDEN - Demain Sera Chaos de Fleurs

Album: Demain sera Chaos de Fleurs

Artist: ÉDEN

Label: Hannah

Catalogue no: N/A

Tracklist:

1.      Demain sera Chaos de Fleurs

2.      Drowned in Space

3.      Static in the Void

4.      Rêves de Ruines

5.      Deeper, through the Light

This five track album is another release from the young Hannah label, one which appears to be issuing material solely through Bandcamp. Whereas Espaces by labelmate Nikita Fuji is one single musical expression divided up into seemingly arbitrary tracks, Demain sera Chaos de Fleurs (Tomorrow will be the Chaos of Flowers – although to be grammatically correct the French should be Demain sera Chaos des Fleurs) presents a varied selection of atmospheres and moods.

The title track begins with a pulsing organ-like tone that soon develops into a grainy fuzzed-out industrial machine noise swelling that piles up upon itself continuously, like a never-ending rumbling of thunder. Then we jump to the other end of the spectrum in ‘Drowned in Space’, echoing knocks from inside a gargantuan hollowed out metallic cocoon: an embryonic something existing in potentia that wants to born. It too, builds up steadily, its heartbeat getting stronger by the second.

‘Static in the Void’, the following track, again pulses and shimmers into view; perhaps this is the potential apparent in the previous piece now made absolute, and whatever it is has made itself manifest in three-dimensional space. The pulse of life and strength is solid and palpable here: its struggle for existence has been justified, and its living, breathing, and pulsating fleshiness has been birthed for all to see. ‘Rêves de Ruines’ is its manifesto perhaps, its announcement of the fulfilment of some idea or prophecy.

Finally, we get to what is my highlight of the album – ‘Deeper, through the Light’, a sumptuous swirling inflowing of sound and light, converging to a singularity of illumination. Does that illumination merely signify physical light, or is it the illumination of the sainted man or woman? Is it the return of matter to its source, or the mote in God’s eye into which we all return? Or is it merely a signpost, a pointer to a path on which we must all tread? Yes, it contains a subtle hint of the angelic, but simultaneously it also speaks of ineffable power. It is not to be trifled with: it may be the harbinger of a glorious future, but that future is merely the destination. The path itself is dangerous and full of peril, and we must be wary.

I thought of this as more of a sampler album on which the artist is laying out his wares on a virtual table. There is much potential apparent, even as it stands (four of the tracks are short, coming in under five minutes, but it’s only on the last track which, at over eleven minutes, gives it the room to breathe, expand, and explore properly). I suggest that perhaps that ÉDEN might consider gracing us with longer, more developed exegeses, allowing to us to become better acquainted with his vision. His work certainly deserves a wider canvas on which to paint his pictures.

Digital album available from https://hannahmusic.bandcamp.com/album/demain-sera-chaos-de-fleurs

Psymon Marshall 2019

Nikita Fuji - Espaces

Album: Espaces

Artist: Nikita Fuji

Label: Hannah

Catalogue no: N/A

Tracklist:

     1.      Espace 1

     2.      Espace 2

     3.      Espace 3

     4.      Espace 4

     5.      Espace 5

     6.      Espace 6

It’s a brave person who decides to base a conceptual ambient album around a work composed by one of the masters of 20^th century minimalism, and even braver when that work is one of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt’s works, in this case ‘Fratres’. The original is itself a sublime work, a masterpiece combining the simple with the seemingly complex, so to even contemplate the act of taking a part of it and expanding on its sublimity is astounding.

I’ll be honest – I am not much for classical instrumentation and music. I find classical music too intrusive, too much of an imposition on my aural reality. I am not saying that it’s bad, just that I don’t understand it and my brain can’t process it in the same way that I do with dark ambient.

This is a roundabout way of saying that Fuji’s interpretation, even if it’s only a slice of the original and so taken out of context, feels transcendent in a way that Pärt’s work doesn’t. There again, they’re two completely different beasts, and like I averred above my preferences are nothing to do with the quality of the original – this is merely how *I* respond to it. Espaces is essentially one track divided into six parts but ultimately the divisions are meaningless – taken as a whole this album can be interpreted as a journey through the cold, lightless regions of the earth, places where the sun hides its face for months at a time and, even when it does shine, the temperature declines to rise much above freezing. Frigid winds blowing is the only form of movement here, and they carry with them the icy dust of ages and eons, obliterating and obscuring the landscape, making features barely perceptible or even recognisable. In those times when the microscopic particles cease their turbulence and settle, the wind lessens, and the skies clear, movement doesn’t entirely desist: look up and we see the dance of even tinier particles shimmer across the dome of the heavens. Behind the veil stars twinkle frostily, their light as pure and unalloyed as we are likely to see.

This is serene and beautiful, but it also carries the seeds of darkness within it. In spite of how peaceful and tranquil it may appear, for the most part that’s only a superficial thing. Snow and ice, especially when sculpted by natural forces, can look spectacular, but cold can also bring death. Regardless of how fine and uplifting this music sounds and feels, that potentially lethal element lurks behind every note here. The glacial elegance portrayed here is alluring, enticing, but it’s perhaps fortunate that we are experiencing it from afar, at many removes. This is definitely a thing of beauty, but it comes with sharp edges.

Support this new label by going here to purchase your copy of this digital only album:

https://hannahmusic.bandcamp.com/album/espaces

Psymon Marshall 2019