cassette – Noumenal Loom

Carmen Jaci is a French-Canadian artist now resident in the Netherlands. She is at ease mixing a wide range of acoustic instruments, synths and vocal recordings in a coherent and imaginative way. With academic riguor, she explores the borders area between electronic music, classical music and pop culture. Happy Child is a record that employs a certain lightness and sensitivity, there is a desire to experiment with different directions and new sound combinations to find a way to reconnect with the inner child that is within all of us. It leaves the impression of a continuous tension between joy, disenchantment, and malaise, kept alive through a combination of different acoustic and electronic sounds and experiments such as volume manipulation, ringtones, videogames, and so on. There is something about the structures implemented by Jaci that are reminiscent of a plunderphonic approach, although it does not matter that the ‘historic background’ is visible, or the samples, rather than being ‘found’, are meticulously set up. There are many pseudo-orchestral moments, bundled up within fragmented compositions, adorned by multiple micro-melodies and full of fragmented breaks that connect, and disconnect, hyper pop and concrete music. The sequences are unruly and unpredictable – the method here is to have no method. Jaci engages with surrealism without the psychoanalysis, hitting the senses from multiple directions, providing moments for reflection but also instilling humour, imagination and a cheerful, dreamy type of confusion.

 

Carmen Jaci – Happy Child