| EtherREAL
Après deux très bons albums parus en 1998 et 2001 sur Tomlab,
on n’était sans nouvelles de Novisad (de la même manière, silence côté
Adlib, autre projet de Kristian Peters). C’est donc avec bonheur et
intérêt que l’on apprit que flau sortait le troisième long-format de
l’Allemand.
Musicalement, on avait en mémoire de courtes pièces electronica, faites
de collages sonores plutôt mélodiques et charmants avec, en plus, ce
qu’il faut d’expérimentations pour ne pas verser dans l’affèterie. C’est
globalement ce schéma que l’on retrouve sur Funkel, renforcé par la
structure d’un disque constitué de dix-huit morceaux de deux minutes
quinze de moyenne. Alors qu’on pensait qu’au-delà des trémoli (Untitled
3), notes détachées (Distant Vicinity) et nappes (Untitled 4) de guitare
aisément identifiables, le reste de l’album était composé de boucles
électroniques, on fut surpris de découvrir qu’en réalité, Funkel n’était
formé que de samples de guitare.
Il en résulte une superposition d’éléments émanant de la six-cordes
de Kristian Peters qui permet de combiner approche contemplative et
petite ritournelle (Untitled 9, Restspielzeit) ou bien dimension mélancolique
et installation d’une texture d’arrière-plan (Tine, Kaeri). Dès lors,
après avoir été de prime abord plutôt déçu par une construction assez
proche de celle de ses disques précédents, on reconnaît peu à peu les
véritables qualités de ce nouvel album et notamment donc cette capacité
à proposer une telle palette à partir d’un unique instrument.
Textura
Funkel, Kristian Peters' third album under the Novisad name
(Novisad and Seleya appeared on Tomlab in1998 and 2001 respectively),
packs eighteen songs, all of them produced during a seven-year timespan,
into a fleeting forty-two minute running time. As a result, the tracks'
two-minute durations don't typically allow them to move through the
conventional narrative stages one might encounter in a longer composition.
As a result, most of Funkel's songs are even-flowing set-pieces that
use layered loops to establish a mood and then hew to it for the duration.
The material is also, by design, a concept album of sorts with all of
the pieces created from guitar samples the Rostock, Germany-based producer
(who has also issued material under his real name and as Adlib) collected
over time and from different places, Peters having embraced the concept
upon realizing the infinite potential the single instrument offers.
Despite whatever seeming limitations one might think an adherence to
a single instrument would impose, Funkel's material reveals a generous
range of variety. Acoustic lattices fall like raindrops during “Song
2,” crystalline, harp-like flutterings dominate “Untitled 4,” and stuttering
filigrees of acoustic and electric guitars find Novisad firmly ensconced
in Klimek territory during “Raindrops.” Aswim in a quiet sea of static
hiss and pops, gentle strums evoke a tranquil country setting in “Untitled2”
while a lilting percussion rhythm underscores blurry streams and gentle
shadings in “Abbild.” The ambient haze Peters generates in “Yappari”
indicates why Novisad's inclusion on Kompakt's Pop Ambient 2002 makes
perfect sense. Though Peters asserts that the album material is built
from guitar samples, the range of sounds sometimes suggests a broader
range of sound sources; rippling pianos seem to appear alongside percussive
rhythms and billowing lattices during “Untitled 9” but, then again,
it's entirely possible that the sounds derive from heavily-treated guitar-generated
material. Listeners hungry for compositions featuring dramatic peaks
and valleys won't find them on Funkel; what they will find are eighteen,
semi-static mood pieces tailor-made to induce reverie and reflection.
Norman Records
Novisad: a.k.a Kristian Peters creates conceptual soundscapes
as opposed to traditionally structured music. The tracks on 'Funkel'
are sonic chunks of manipulation based solely on guitar samples Kristian
has been storing up in his computer machine. He is obviously inspired
by the infinite possibilities presented by the cutting and pasting of
guitars and has plowed the terrain well and truly on this release.The
music is soft and heartfelt without ever introducing vocals or obvious
emotional motifs and he makes the guitar sound like the most beautiful
instrument in the world. It shares a little in common with the likes
of Four Tet and Boards of Canada for its uncanny ability to project
emotional concepts via synthetic, electronic music but it's predominantly
loop based so it appears more spaced out and dreamy with less focus
on structural development and obvious pay-off moments. Sound scraps
of joy.
Boomkat
Those of you with the keenest memories out there may remember
Novisad's Kristian Peters from his first two albums on Tomlab. His album
Seleya, released in 2001, was an arrestingly lovely thing, full of intricate
lo-fi textures and mysterious loop-based constructions, and it's a great
shame that it's taken Peters so long to get back to us with a third
outing. The result of some seven years of musical endeavour, Funkel
would seem to pick up where Seleya left off, stitching together ruptured
electronic phrases snatched from processed guitar recordings and all
manner of effects. The end result of all this is an album that feels
like a collection of sketches and strangely half-formed ideas, yet when
it's all bundled together there's a curious narrative sense to it all,
and you find yourself submitting to Peters' very unique soundworld.
Every so often moments of glaring beauty rise from the cumulative tangle
of spluttering repetitions: 'Yappari', for example, offers an evocative
drone interlude while 'Untitled 2' lightly dismantles sounds taken from
Lucky Kitchen's Aeron & Sandra, but taken as a whole you're likely to
conclude that Funkel is a strange and enigmatic beast - an album that
sounds quite unlike anything else and undoubtedly rewards perseverance
but at times almost sounds as if it was made by accident rather than
deliberated over for seven years. Really quite odd, but an immersive,
utterly lovely piece of work nonetheless.
Smallfish
Having only experienced a few of Novisad’s releases before (notably
on Tomlab) I wasn’t exactly sure what this was going to sound like.
Then I remembered it’s on Flau and that should have given me more than
enough information to go on. ‘Funkel’ is a series of short sketch-like
tracks that concentrate more on atmospheres than actual structures.
And that really is why it works so well I think. Each piece takes a
certain audio cue and then works with for a few minutes, augmenting
then reducing the flow of the music to create a crisp hit of pure sound.
From rolling guitar licks through to arpeggiated electronic textures
the thing they all have in common (as do most Flau releases) is a sense
of tranquil, effortless beauty. Even the more abstract moments have
a warmth and musicality to them. It’s a playful style at times as well
with a quirkiness that sits more than happily on a Japanese label and,
in fact, if I’d been pushed into it I would have suspected that this
was indeed a Japanese artist if I didn’t know who it was. For fans of
Plop and Ryoondo-tea I think there’s an awful lot to enjoy here on this
lovely little album. Truly excellent.
Autres Directions
Voilà huit ans que Kristian Peters alias Novisad n’avait pas
donné de nouvelles, et à peu près autant qu’il collecte des samples
de guitare, matière première constitutive de ce Funkel régi par la loi
des boucles. Plutôt vulnérables que rigides, plus floues que mécaniques,
ces boucles traitées s’enchevêtrent avec une certaine économie, et parviennent
à instaurer une sensation de flottement dans chacune des 18 vignettes.
En dépit d’une palette sonore peu variée et rarement étoffée, l’envergure
du spectre manipulatoire autorise la fluctuation des climats, évite
la monotonie.
Tandis que Song 2 et Untitled 2 conservent la naturalité des instruments
impliqués (piano électrique et guitare acoustique intactes forment des
boucles entraînant dans leur sillage un léger souffle vinylique), Untitled
1 et Tokimeki Pingpong font la part belle aux sonorités cristallines
et purement synthétiques, dessinant des ondes sinusoïdales dépourvues
d’attaque.
Mais la majorité des titres évoluent quelque part entre ces deux antipodes,
mêlant sources acoustiques et électroniques, floutées par un gommage
numérique, étirées en lignes horizontales flirtant avec les recoins
ambient du foyer 12k (Song 1, Untitled 3, Raindrops, Yappari). Dans
cet espace dédié à la rêverie, Restspielzeit arbore des atouts mélodiques
aussi séducteurs que ceux développés par F.S.Blumm ; Untitled 9 laisse
une rythmique sommaire et évasive bercer des entrelacs de piano aquatique
(comme si le Cue d’Andrew Pekler se noyait en eaux troubles), et le
final Abbild dégage un parfum d’exotisme, distille une mélodie insulaire
et paradisiaque, sous forme de rumba résiduelle, freinée et filtrée
de manière telle qu’on croirait l’écouter l’oreille collée à un coquillage.
De quoi joliment refermer cette parenthèse apaisante et songeuse.
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