BALLROOMS OF MARS - cédre
(download, nexsound)
Two strategies define the work of Ballrooms of Mars on
this release: hiding structure behind walls of seemingly disorganized noise
and hiding the noise and chaos behind a resemblence of structure. The effect
is the enforced and welcome disjunction of moments of pristine beauty and
chaotic dissonance that keeps the listener in upright tension for the whole
of the tracks, ever expecting a harsh attack of ripping noise while trying
to relax to gentle appregios on an acoustic guitar or finding the inner
pulse in a chaotic collage of random noises of either and or electronic
instruments of manipulation or electronically or manually manipulated
instruments but waiting for moments of relaxation. The dynamics are
challenging and exhausting. A minute of harsh digital noise pulsed might be
followed by a slew of ragtime chords on the piano straight from the
Jacksonville Twenties. A young women’s voice and a flute become soundbytes
with a mysterious and evil sub-tone, while electronic crackles and clicks
seem to be soothing. Sometimes it feels like spreading in all directions at
the same time, with the fear of overdoing mixing with the good moods of
relaxation.
The duo Christophe Debouit and Charles Lavenac have
managed to fuse the 20th century orchestra with the world of
digital noise, which in itself would be a feat to be marvelled at, but they
did so in an enormous variety of ways that keeps “cédre” exciting and
suprising in all its chaotic dissonance and complexity. There is no
mysteriousness or overt atmosphere of evil on this record – such
sentiments are left for the noise mongers painting their faces and doing
grisly record covers. Everything on “cédre” is exactly what it is and
is clearly discernible even the most chaotic moments – where the depiction
of single bits takes more concentration of course. This open and transparent
production adds to an atmosphere of almost academic music construction and
it is hard to imagine Debouit and Lavenac as anything else but serious in a
sense that welcomes the joy of work and artistic expression, but never
letting it get in the way of the body of work ahead of them.
Controll is also still an important issue. There is a
moment during the last track where the steady pounding of a manipulated bass
sound is opposed to a variety of multplying horn calls. But at the beginning
of this section it is just an enormous bass sound and the very controlled
blowing of a few simple notes on a clarinet or something close by. A tender
and almost intimate moment, mirrored later on in a harmonious guitar line
with sombre and soothing bass tones and lots of echo. Think Throbbing
Gristle playing Angelo Badalementi’s theme to Twin Peaks for this moment,
but don’t let it guide you, it is just one moment. These moments only take
half to a full minute before the turn to something completely different, but
they show how much care and construction has gone into these tracks.
Everybody judging from the first few minutes of unabridled free impro noise
at the beginning of “cédre” that this is another record about chaos and
dissonance, has been caught in the trap set out. This is a record about the
delusion of chaos as well as of symmetry. Because even if symmetry (as in
cadence) is a basic formula for western theory of harmony, it can’t live
without the chaotic world of dissonance, if only as an opposition to depart
from and return to.
