Last week, we reviewed the latest by Brume which was released on Fern Recordings. A quote from that review: “Small Cruel Party, Daniel Menche, Francisco Lopez, the Toniutti brothers, Christoph Heemann, toy.bizarre, BJ Nilsen … Just a few names of artists that have releases out on Fern Recordings.” You could think this label looks strongly at older and established names but behold: This review is about Aliénor Golvet. Aliénor is a PhD student at Ircam-STMS lab in the {Sound, Music, Movement} Interaction team and next to that, she released music under the names a lie and Perlesvaus, none of which have been reviewed in Vital. So sadly no comparison or timeline research. “Point, Line, surface” is the first release under her name. A big step forward because – that’s how I look at it – you can no longer hide behind the imagery or made-up name. This is it! This is the real thing! Her website describes her musical activities as ‘an exploration of sterility, mundanity and stillness interpreted through personal feelings and subjective experience.’ So yeah, field recordings, object manipulation, and sounds in micro and macro perspectives (trains in the background, touching surfaces and whispering in the foreground) are all sculpted into stories. Four, to be exact, with 34 minutes on the short side. Because of the atmospheric character, it could all have been more extensive. With this, I mean that the placement of some sounds seems ‘sudden’ or a bit out of focus. The listener is not always guided into the journey. Aliénor’s music fits the label’s catalogue pretty well, I think. Somewhere on the scale of musique concrète (meaning total control over the composed results) and electro-acoustic improvisation (which means, well, improvised), this goes both ways, which is a good thing but also an indication that Golvet has not yet found an individual voice. This release is quite good; definitely as a first release under her name. It will be interesting to see how she will grow over the years and how she conquers the little hiccups or incoherencies we find on this one.
Words by FdW & BW
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