François J. Bonnet under the recording name Kassel Jaeger has made numerous amazing albums. And rightly, much is informed by his deep knowledge of historic electronic instruments. He is after all, a director of INA-GRM.
Whilst Le Lisse Et Le Strie feels like an ep rather than a full album, I’m pretty sure it’s what I’ve listened to more than anything else this year. Quite unexpectedly, one track in particular has had a deeply powerful effect on me to the extent it’s got me hooked for good. The type of track that the first time you hear it – stops you in your tracks and every time it’s ever on, despite how causally or carefully I’m listening – totally bowls me over.
I’ve no idea why the 6 minutes of Prismatic Haze has this power over me but its weird corkscrewing drones are truly and spectacularly hypnotic. Human catnip as sound, on tap.
Jaeger’s concepts on these works are explorations of smooth and streaked or stripey. Visual things applied to sound. Other patterns. The opener Serpentine Mosaic floats around long organ like tones and a pleasingly effortless interlocking for woozy 10 minutes.
A meditation of surface noise layers the foundation for Ocelli for NVD as gently see sawing bleeping trajectories can. Mortes-Eaux, as you may expect has a watery element that intertwines with various immediate droning plateaus and reflections.
The material feels so completely alien but coated in speaker rippling warmth. Despite its comparative newness, Le Lisse Et Le Strie is just over 30 minutes got that gravity and magnetism I’m pleased to report, so far, has been inescapable.
Get Le Lisse Et Le Strie here
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