February 11, 2009
After three albums on Tzadik, Sub Rosa and Orkhëstra, his collaboration with Sylvain Chauveau & Steven Hess (ON) for Second Souffle (brocoli), setting instrumental compositions - or improvisations - for small ensembles against electroacoustic treatments, the young French composer Pierre-Yves Macé now presents his first full-scale work of musique concrète.
Passagenweg takes its inspiration from philosopher Walter Benjamin's (1892-1940) Arcades project, an unfinished lifelong attempt to document industrial modernity through Parisian iron-and-glass covered 'arcades'.
The Surrealists, such as Aragon, said they were inspired by the outdated goods to be found in these arcades. Likewise, Macé revives samples of popular French music from the 1920's and 30's, filtered through musique concrète and laptop music manipulations.
Passagenweg is profoundly original music, the chance meetings of gramophone cracklings and digital glitches, of sweet orchestration and saturated drones. It alternates between ambient soundscapes, melodic lines and fractured collages, all the while remaining lyrical, mysterious and melancholic.
