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Matthias Puech

Mt. Hadamard National Park (LP, White)

Label: Hallow Ground

Format: LP

Genre: Electronic

In stock

€23.90
€21.90
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Electro-acoustic composer and instrument designer Matthias Puech uses math to spin filigree "audio-naturalist noise" yarns using processed environmental recordings, dissociated instrumental vamps and sculpted electronix.

There's no shortage of painterly field recording albums at the moment, but Matthias Puech at least approaches the landscape with a novel methodology. Inspired by chaos theory and the Hudson River school of painting, a 19th century American movement that used tempestuous conditions to enhance the grandiosity of the surroundings, Puech considered the idea of control over natural order. His sounds then take a similar route to paradise, flitting between dissonant abstraction and the sublime. 

Plasticated oscillations underpin the album's first segment 'Mt. Hadamard National Park, Pt. 1', hiding in an undergrowth made up of kundled rainforest croaks, foliage footsteps and occasional horror movie string stabs. If Puech's goal is to heighten our anxiety he's scored, and he lets the rest of the extended piece develop into eardrum-scorching free noise, before it reaches an elegiac about turn on 'Mt. Hadamard National Park, Pt. 3' with pitchy FM plucks 'n chimes, and what sounds like some kind of large, ominous bird.

The most impressive composition is 'Imperceptible Life', a lengthy finale that provides a release of breath after the rest of the album's stifled apprehension. Puech's precise sound design chops are given the chance to sparkle here, as he layers animalistic croaks over guitar string scratches and majestic pads.

Details
Cat. number: HG2302
Year: 2023
Notes:
“Mt. Hadamard National Park” commissioned by Radio France, premiered at Festival Présences, Maison de la Radio et de la Musique.

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