12” – Le Cabanon

Opening with some nervous ticking and an #oriental song #playing in the background, the last work of Yvan Tekoutcheff, aka Yvanko, for Le Cabanon, reveals itself to be a delicate, sensitive and pointillist dissertation, one whose passages are always soft and in which no particular element stands out from the general soundscape. The French musician skillfully instills a crystal clear spatial quality into his sounds, moving the listener’s attention across variable passages. If “every moment brings its lyricism, its tragedy, its drama”, a total participation is concentrated on every single moment and the continuous tension does not leave room for possible distraction. Pluviôse is divided into five tracks, “Azumaton”, “Ventôse”, “ Irradiées”, “Exeunt” and “Rognés”. The digital version has a digital bonus, “Radicaux Libres”. The vinyl edition has a bonus track too, “Panta Rhei”, over ten minutes long, the longest one in the selection. The evocative settings grab the listener’s attention, and despite the atypical and fragmentary compositional style, they all converge around a specific process. Yvanko develops the usual cut’n’splice techniques towards a more poetic dimension, moving the experimental composition in a dreamy and narrative direction. In Pluviôse, the audible sounds seem to lead to something broader, rarefied and intentional, which hits our nerve centres with a flood of widespread stimuli, cutting across abrasive layers and measured ellipses. Due to the complexity of the relationships and parameters played in this specific music processing, it’s not possible to reduce all the sounds to a one-dimensional plan. The musician can work on the sonic structure thanks to the melodic, dynamic and harmonic analysis. The electroacoustic tradition and the spatiality typical of the acousmatic approach are also referenced, all subjects the French composer shows he can master quite well. “Exeunt” is the most contemporary and futuristic track; thanks to its spatial suggestions and the incomprehensible melodic structures, every new listening acquires new connotations.

 

Yvanko – Azumaton (LECABANON005)