Encre - Plexus II [Miasmah]
» Published by trym on Apr 06, 2008
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Label: Miasmah
Year: 2006
Format: CD
Drawing some sparks of origination from Sixties and Seventies drug culture, over the past decades there has been a practice in the ambient circles of electronic music to compose gargantuan pieces, looking back into the early days of the genre, names like Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream, The Orb and Norwegian pioneer Arne Nordheim whose music pioneered the electronica genre (as it was hardly a genre yet) but rather contemporary classical music. Later it was for example Pete Namlook and many of his collaborations for FAX where songs last anywhere from 10 – 60 minutes. As another example some recordings and performances by Touch artists yielding continuous, extended compositions that – when done successfully – grab hold of the listener, or in the event of failing that, gives the listener a lot of time to think about other things and lose focus and interest pretty quickly. Some artists may compose such long tracks as a one-off or singular element of their album, i.e. the Norwegian ambient duo Information and their ominous and lofty ambient masterpiece The Air and The Pilot, or more recently Stars of The Lid and The Artificial Pine Arch Song and many more of their repertoire, or even Biosphere, before he turned to field recordings and new formats. Others, like pioneer Klaus Schulze, could limit an album side to one or two long compositions and stretch the limitations, simply recording until the tape ran out. The list is long and many examples can be produced for both great examples and failed attempts, results can sometimes be pretentious or ridiculed, d&b afficinado Goldie and his Mother epos readily available in memory. In recent years, the phenomenon of the extended compositions is maybe rarer and a practice not seen as often, particularly looking to contemporary classical music. My interest was therefore piqued by the arrival of Miasmah’s second album, signed classically trained Frenchman Yann Tambour, who records under the moniker Encre.
Plexus II is the title of his debut for Miasmah and the album is a monumental, 41-minute long composition in one track. Often with such long compositions you can regard it as a suite of shorter themes but even so you’re still left with two pieces each amounting to roughly twenty minutes each. After listening through several times, my first impression was left in question, but in the time after this piece has grown on me immensely. The composition’s first theme is seemingly like a study in the arrangement of strings, then second theme concentrates on horn instruments. The entire endeavour starts out with delicately scraped strings, a lone cello, introducing the groundwork rhythm, a breathing, alternating foundation. On a macro-level like the ebb and flow of the tide and at micro-level the detail of each single wave crashing into the shore, then retreating to sea to come back strengthened. Added to this are various themes of strings fading in, fading out, longer chords, then the briefest plucked string of harp, overlapping other elements and relieving other strings. Then as the strings begin to fade, a different theme builds up to the same cello providing the backdrop, but this time with horns playing the solo parts. Backed by other natural sounds, his own voice, the long and slow piece makes for a beautiful and tranquil symphony which brings artists like Steve Reich, Julien Neto and Deaf Center to mind.