ERIC
ALDÉA & IVAN CHOISSONE
Narcophony
CD,
0101
“Narcophony” offers exactly what it promises. A pure and beautiful
musical rendition of sleep, of a mind wandering through the subconscious, a
dream-scape full of liquid images and flowing thoughts. Magically the eleven
musicians build up power and strength, step back into singular sounds,
somehow reminding of field-sounds, the build up again another enormous wave
of musical might moving at a methusalean pace. They form a veritable
chamber-orchestra, that spans the gap between modern classical music and
electronic music. (The bridging of this gap seems to be the most important
task ahead of modern music at this point of time. Until the accepted opinion
will be that there is no such gap.) The first five tracks make up a piece
called “Petit Buddha”, which was inspired by “Spiral Insana” by
Nurse with wound from 1987. More explorators into electronic soundscapes
there. Five times the tension builds up, five times it falls into itself
like nothing at the moment you think that the noise and force becomes
overwhelming. Sometimes it is beautiful, sometimes scaring and frightening.
Especially at the end of part two, but it is resolved by soothing sounds
from the string section right at the start of part three. In part four they
use whirling electronic sounds and weird bleeps and beeps to build up
tension over the humming sound of loading electric voltage. If you imagine
Godspeed! You Black Emperor without the rhythmical force and its driving
beats – Aldea and Choissone have managed to create pure and beautiful
musical power without using the violence of fast speed.
There are two more pieces on “Narcophony”, central parts not just one
Epilogue and one encore. “Leo” was composed by Ivan Chiossone alone and
it is proof of his masterful skills at this early stage of his career. It
starts with traditional chimes and bells over a deep humming sound made by
another traditional instrument. Then it dips slowly but with attitude into
the enormous well of global folklore, binding itself to more and longer
history and traditions than any one man can understand or possess alone. But
the hints and associations are all here. It is a hypnotic piece of
avantgarde world-music, more dynamic and movable than “Petit Buddah”,
but also building up its flow and size in the same manner. The third piece,
“Hasmig”, is a trancelike, soothing and long-winded ending and thereby a
perfect closing for the listener, to slowly awake from the self-induced
hypnosis. With durating strings and only the finest hints at a melody sung
by the clouds and the wind in a completely deserted area. It is both dark
and makes you think of blazing sunlight.
Eric Aldea is an old fighter in comparison to Chiossone. My first
encounter with him was the Avant-Noise-Outfit Deity Guns, who had a great
album called “Trans-line Appointment, which I bought at their concert back
about a dozen years or so. I’d really like to listen to that one again,
but I can’t find it. Where have the times gone? Okay, so I’ll listen to
the records I have of Bästard, another band led by Eric Aldéa, this time
more avantgarde, but no less noise. “narcophony” is a new and big step
in his musical evolution. A masterly composed piece, inspired by avantgarde
/ underground-legends Nurse with Wounds and recorded onto tape. He, and
indeed Ivan Chiossone, have left the fringes of rock-music completely now,
moving between pure sounds and the flow of natural atmospheric auditive
impulses. They find a connection between the 2.000 years of history of what
is named classical music with the furthest reaches into the future of music
as they are done now by electronic music.
