Big Tip! Edition of 300, comes with large poster! Jean-Marie Mercimek have crafted something remarkable with Dans Le Camion De Marguerite Duras - a singular hybrid that transforms the road movie into pure sonic cinema. Following years of meticulous work across France and Belgium, the French duo of Marion Molle and Ronan Riou have emerged with what might be their most ambitious statement yet, a work that brazenly expands their penchant for lowkey narrative spectacle into uncharted territories.
The road is a wrinkled timeline, and Jean-Marie Mercimek understand this implicitly. Across six years of composition and recording, Dans Le Camion De Marguerite Duras unfolds as an unlikely distillation of microtonal MIDI composition, French B.O., and post-punk chansons - a road movie for the blind that cuts through the landscape with a line of mad logic, compositing time, space, and thought into a single, flowing narrative. Within this context, sounds form a theatrical screen. The truck becomes a camera, zooming and framing the tracks as scenes, while songwriting and sound design blur in a tangle of delicate economy. Molle and Riou's approach recalls the otherworldly miniatures of Gareth Williams' Flaming Tunes, the mutant music-box territories explored by The Residents, and the catchier corners of Lovely Music's catalog, yet never quite falls into cartoon territory. Their vocals dilate into a cast of very human characters - voices singing borrowed texts like untrained actors playing themselves, stepping into the frame once before disappearing forever.
This is experimental music at its most seductive - strange, certainly, but possessed of an undeniable warmth and humanity that draws the listener ever deeper into its spell. The balance of mutant music-boxes and dewy miniatures creates a hypnotic world of repose in perpetual motion, where every departure promises a return under the cyclic spell of the open road. Originally commissioned by Aguirre Records as part of their ongoing dedication to the outer reaches of contemporary European experimental music, Dans Le Camion De Marguerite Duras stands as a remarkable achievement - a work that challenges the boundaries between sound design and songcraft, between the abstract and the deeply personal. Like the road itself, it's a journey that reveals new textures and transparent layers with each return.
For fans of Luc Ferrari's narrative electroacoustic works, Brigitte Fontaine's surreal chanson experiments, and the more adventurous corners of the Crammed Discs catalog, this is essential listening. Dans Le Camion De Marguerite Duras is that rare work that manages to be both intellectually rigorous and emotionally resonant - a road movie that plays differently every time you press play.
A stunning achievement from one of France's most intriguing experimental duos, released by Aguirre in a limited edition that captures the full scope of their remarkable vision. Turn up the radio and appuyez sur le champignon.
