Kassel Jaeger
Shifted in Dreams
Boomkat Product Review:
François Bonnet's latest album is his smokiest, most evocative to date, submerging synth and organ drones, guitar shimmer and resonant tones from the Cristal Baschet, in beds of expertly-tweaked noise. Comparisons are difficult because it's a devilishly specific sound, but imagine Basinski, Black To Comm, FUJI||||||||||TA, and The Caretaker sharing a space, and you'll have a vague idea.
With a title like "Shifted in Dreams", it's hard not to expect Bonnet to grip onto the shoegaze-ambient third rail and shock himself into latter-day TikTok relevance - thankfully, this ain't that record. The INA GRM director's latest perceives dreams in a different way from their expected mainstream aesthetic representation; for Bonnet, a dream highlights the inconsistencies of semiotic reality, while amplifying emotional states and the blurry impressionism usually lost in daily ephemera. To illustrate these concepts, he uses techniques he's been refining since the mid-00s on releases for Editions Mego, Senufo, Black Truffle and of course Shelter Press, and via crucial collaborations with Oren Ambarchi, Akira Rabelais, Giuseppe Ielasi, Jim O'Rourke and others. And despite his overt connection with musique concrète, there are few of the usual stylistic components on show here - Bonnet takes compositional inspiration, but leaves it at that. The title track is an apt introduction, bringing us into Bonnet's sonic space abruptly and immediately drawing attention to the texture and physical processing of his sounds. Carnivalesque organ groans are rotated unevenly across the sound-field, crumpled into tiny spheres before being tossed into a booming cavern; it's deeply visual music that almost jumps from the speakers, propelled by its own corporeality.
An ill-informed read might mistake the gestures Bonnet makes as being soundtrack-inspired, but he's careful not to fall into any of these obvious, overwrought traps. Instead he uses maudlin sounds (furtive strings, loping basses, orchestra pit trumpet blasts) as subterfuge, loading the body of each track with bewildering psychedelic edits and unstable, kaleidoscopic drones. 'Dissipation of Light' feels like being trapped in a flickering cathode ray projection, warbling synthetic tones dissolving into feverish wails that might seem static until you tune yr ears into the inherent burr. A flute-like tone heaves into view and Bonnet ratchets up the amplitude, suggesting the tenor of power ambient without repeating the maligned subgenre's fragile peacocking. On the delirious 'Gullintoppa', the Cristal Baschet - an organ made from glass rods that was a favorite instrument of the concrète set - is used to add resonance and drama to Bonnet's meticulous factory-fresh environmental clatter, and on 'Allée des Brouillards' he layers instrumental loops asymmetrically to propose a vertiginous counter to Basinski's loping "Disintegration Loops" memorials.
Brimming with ingenious rhymes and subtle top-down gallic humor, "Shifted in Dreams" sounds like a panopticon-style overview of an experimental music landscape that's become ensnared in its own self-mythologizing and lumpen, ornamental repetition. His approach isn't cynical, he's dreaming of a radically healthier creative incubator that spies its subject matter from different angles, re-interpreting and re-evaluating rather than accepting raw sound (and its underlying philosophy) as sacrosanct. When his music is lonely and pensive, like on the funereal closing track 'Carcosan Cycles', it's also hopeful. Like Gavin Bryars' chafing descent into murky blackness on 'Sinking of the Titanic', Bonnet's hymn is pierced by loss and if it isn't exactly lifted to the surface, it's allowed to marinate in its own ideas until it drowns in temporality. We have more than a sneaking suspicion that this one will grow and grow in the next few weeks and months - ignore it at ur peril.
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Boomkat Product Review:
François Bonnet's latest album is his smokiest, most evocative to date, submerging synth and organ drones, guitar shimmer and resonant tones from the Cristal Baschet, in beds of expertly-tweaked noise. Comparisons are difficult because it's a devilishly specific sound, but imagine Basinski, Black To Comm, FUJI||||||||||TA, and The Caretaker sharing a space, and you'll have a vague idea.
With a title like "Shifted in Dreams", it's hard not to expect Bonnet to grip onto the shoegaze-ambient third rail and shock himself into latter-day TikTok relevance - thankfully, this ain't that record. The INA GRM director's latest perceives dreams in a different way from their expected mainstream aesthetic representation; for Bonnet, a dream highlights the inconsistencies of semiotic reality, while amplifying emotional states and the blurry impressionism usually lost in daily ephemera. To illustrate these concepts, he uses techniques he's been refining since the mid-00s on releases for Editions Mego, Senufo, Black Truffle and of course Shelter Press, and via crucial collaborations with Oren Ambarchi, Akira Rabelais, Giuseppe Ielasi, Jim O'Rourke and others. And despite his overt connection with musique concrète, there are few of the usual stylistic components on show here - Bonnet takes compositional inspiration, but leaves it at that. The title track is an apt introduction, bringing us into Bonnet's sonic space abruptly and immediately drawing attention to the texture and physical processing of his sounds. Carnivalesque organ groans are rotated unevenly across the sound-field, crumpled into tiny spheres before being tossed into a booming cavern; it's deeply visual music that almost jumps from the speakers, propelled by its own corporeality.
An ill-informed read might mistake the gestures Bonnet makes as being soundtrack-inspired, but he's careful not to fall into any of these obvious, overwrought traps. Instead he uses maudlin sounds (furtive strings, loping basses, orchestra pit trumpet blasts) as subterfuge, loading the body of each track with bewildering psychedelic edits and unstable, kaleidoscopic drones. 'Dissipation of Light' feels like being trapped in a flickering cathode ray projection, warbling synthetic tones dissolving into feverish wails that might seem static until you tune yr ears into the inherent burr. A flute-like tone heaves into view and Bonnet ratchets up the amplitude, suggesting the tenor of power ambient without repeating the maligned subgenre's fragile peacocking. On the delirious 'Gullintoppa', the Cristal Baschet - an organ made from glass rods that was a favorite instrument of the concrète set - is used to add resonance and drama to Bonnet's meticulous factory-fresh environmental clatter, and on 'Allée des Brouillards' he layers instrumental loops asymmetrically to propose a vertiginous counter to Basinski's loping "Disintegration Loops" memorials.
Brimming with ingenious rhymes and subtle top-down gallic humor, "Shifted in Dreams" sounds like a panopticon-style overview of an experimental music landscape that's become ensnared in its own self-mythologizing and lumpen, ornamental repetition. His approach isn't cynical, he's dreaming of a radically healthier creative incubator that spies its subject matter from different angles, re-interpreting and re-evaluating rather than accepting raw sound (and its underlying philosophy) as sacrosanct. When his music is lonely and pensive, like on the funereal closing track 'Carcosan Cycles', it's also hopeful. Like Gavin Bryars' chafing descent into murky blackness on 'Sinking of the Titanic', Bonnet's hymn is pierced by loss and if it isn't exactly lifted to the surface, it's allowed to marinate in its own ideas until it drowns in temporality. We have more than a sneaking suspicion that this one will grow and grow in the next few weeks and months - ignore it at ur peril.
Boomkat Product Review:
François Bonnet's latest album is his smokiest, most evocative to date, submerging synth and organ drones, guitar shimmer and resonant tones from the Cristal Baschet, in beds of expertly-tweaked noise. Comparisons are difficult because it's a devilishly specific sound, but imagine Basinski, Black To Comm, FUJI||||||||||TA, and The Caretaker sharing a space, and you'll have a vague idea.
With a title like "Shifted in Dreams", it's hard not to expect Bonnet to grip onto the shoegaze-ambient third rail and shock himself into latter-day TikTok relevance - thankfully, this ain't that record. The INA GRM director's latest perceives dreams in a different way from their expected mainstream aesthetic representation; for Bonnet, a dream highlights the inconsistencies of semiotic reality, while amplifying emotional states and the blurry impressionism usually lost in daily ephemera. To illustrate these concepts, he uses techniques he's been refining since the mid-00s on releases for Editions Mego, Senufo, Black Truffle and of course Shelter Press, and via crucial collaborations with Oren Ambarchi, Akira Rabelais, Giuseppe Ielasi, Jim O'Rourke and others. And despite his overt connection with musique concrète, there are few of the usual stylistic components on show here - Bonnet takes compositional inspiration, but leaves it at that. The title track is an apt introduction, bringing us into Bonnet's sonic space abruptly and immediately drawing attention to the texture and physical processing of his sounds. Carnivalesque organ groans are rotated unevenly across the sound-field, crumpled into tiny spheres before being tossed into a booming cavern; it's deeply visual music that almost jumps from the speakers, propelled by its own corporeality.
An ill-informed read might mistake the gestures Bonnet makes as being soundtrack-inspired, but he's careful not to fall into any of these obvious, overwrought traps. Instead he uses maudlin sounds (furtive strings, loping basses, orchestra pit trumpet blasts) as subterfuge, loading the body of each track with bewildering psychedelic edits and unstable, kaleidoscopic drones. 'Dissipation of Light' feels like being trapped in a flickering cathode ray projection, warbling synthetic tones dissolving into feverish wails that might seem static until you tune yr ears into the inherent burr. A flute-like tone heaves into view and Bonnet ratchets up the amplitude, suggesting the tenor of power ambient without repeating the maligned subgenre's fragile peacocking. On the delirious 'Gullintoppa', the Cristal Baschet - an organ made from glass rods that was a favorite instrument of the concrète set - is used to add resonance and drama to Bonnet's meticulous factory-fresh environmental clatter, and on 'Allée des Brouillards' he layers instrumental loops asymmetrically to propose a vertiginous counter to Basinski's loping "Disintegration Loops" memorials.
Brimming with ingenious rhymes and subtle top-down gallic humor, "Shifted in Dreams" sounds like a panopticon-style overview of an experimental music landscape that's become ensnared in its own self-mythologizing and lumpen, ornamental repetition. His approach isn't cynical, he's dreaming of a radically healthier creative incubator that spies its subject matter from different angles, re-interpreting and re-evaluating rather than accepting raw sound (and its underlying philosophy) as sacrosanct. When his music is lonely and pensive, like on the funereal closing track 'Carcosan Cycles', it's also hopeful. Like Gavin Bryars' chafing descent into murky blackness on 'Sinking of the Titanic', Bonnet's hymn is pierced by loss and if it isn't exactly lifted to the surface, it's allowed to marinate in its own ideas until it drowns in temporality. We have more than a sneaking suspicion that this one will grow and grow in the next few weeks and months - ignore it at ur peril.
Boomkat Product Review:
François Bonnet's latest album is his smokiest, most evocative to date, submerging synth and organ drones, guitar shimmer and resonant tones from the Cristal Baschet, in beds of expertly-tweaked noise. Comparisons are difficult because it's a devilishly specific sound, but imagine Basinski, Black To Comm, FUJI||||||||||TA, and The Caretaker sharing a space, and you'll have a vague idea.
With a title like "Shifted in Dreams", it's hard not to expect Bonnet to grip onto the shoegaze-ambient third rail and shock himself into latter-day TikTok relevance - thankfully, this ain't that record. The INA GRM director's latest perceives dreams in a different way from their expected mainstream aesthetic representation; for Bonnet, a dream highlights the inconsistencies of semiotic reality, while amplifying emotional states and the blurry impressionism usually lost in daily ephemera. To illustrate these concepts, he uses techniques he's been refining since the mid-00s on releases for Editions Mego, Senufo, Black Truffle and of course Shelter Press, and via crucial collaborations with Oren Ambarchi, Akira Rabelais, Giuseppe Ielasi, Jim O'Rourke and others. And despite his overt connection with musique concrète, there are few of the usual stylistic components on show here - Bonnet takes compositional inspiration, but leaves it at that. The title track is an apt introduction, bringing us into Bonnet's sonic space abruptly and immediately drawing attention to the texture and physical processing of his sounds. Carnivalesque organ groans are rotated unevenly across the sound-field, crumpled into tiny spheres before being tossed into a booming cavern; it's deeply visual music that almost jumps from the speakers, propelled by its own corporeality.
An ill-informed read might mistake the gestures Bonnet makes as being soundtrack-inspired, but he's careful not to fall into any of these obvious, overwrought traps. Instead he uses maudlin sounds (furtive strings, loping basses, orchestra pit trumpet blasts) as subterfuge, loading the body of each track with bewildering psychedelic edits and unstable, kaleidoscopic drones. 'Dissipation of Light' feels like being trapped in a flickering cathode ray projection, warbling synthetic tones dissolving into feverish wails that might seem static until you tune yr ears into the inherent burr. A flute-like tone heaves into view and Bonnet ratchets up the amplitude, suggesting the tenor of power ambient without repeating the maligned subgenre's fragile peacocking. On the delirious 'Gullintoppa', the Cristal Baschet - an organ made from glass rods that was a favorite instrument of the concrète set - is used to add resonance and drama to Bonnet's meticulous factory-fresh environmental clatter, and on 'Allée des Brouillards' he layers instrumental loops asymmetrically to propose a vertiginous counter to Basinski's loping "Disintegration Loops" memorials.
Brimming with ingenious rhymes and subtle top-down gallic humor, "Shifted in Dreams" sounds like a panopticon-style overview of an experimental music landscape that's become ensnared in its own self-mythologizing and lumpen, ornamental repetition. His approach isn't cynical, he's dreaming of a radically healthier creative incubator that spies its subject matter from different angles, re-interpreting and re-evaluating rather than accepting raw sound (and its underlying philosophy) as sacrosanct. When his music is lonely and pensive, like on the funereal closing track 'Carcosan Cycles', it's also hopeful. Like Gavin Bryars' chafing descent into murky blackness on 'Sinking of the Titanic', Bonnet's hymn is pierced by loss and if it isn't exactly lifted to the surface, it's allowed to marinate in its own ideas until it drowns in temporality. We have more than a sneaking suspicion that this one will grow and grow in the next few weeks and months - ignore it at ur peril.
Edition of 1000 copies, includes a download of tyhe album dropped to your account. Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi, artwork by Eléonore Huisse, design by Bartolomé Sanson
Estimated Release Date: 24 February 2023
Please note that shipping dates for pre-orders are estimated and are subject to change
Boomkat Product Review:
François Bonnet's latest album is his smokiest, most evocative to date, submerging synth and organ drones, guitar shimmer and resonant tones from the Cristal Baschet, in beds of expertly-tweaked noise. Comparisons are difficult because it's a devilishly specific sound, but imagine Basinski, Black To Comm, FUJI||||||||||TA, and The Caretaker sharing a space, and you'll have a vague idea.
With a title like "Shifted in Dreams", it's hard not to expect Bonnet to grip onto the shoegaze-ambient third rail and shock himself into latter-day TikTok relevance - thankfully, this ain't that record. The INA GRM director's latest perceives dreams in a different way from their expected mainstream aesthetic representation; for Bonnet, a dream highlights the inconsistencies of semiotic reality, while amplifying emotional states and the blurry impressionism usually lost in daily ephemera. To illustrate these concepts, he uses techniques he's been refining since the mid-00s on releases for Editions Mego, Senufo, Black Truffle and of course Shelter Press, and via crucial collaborations with Oren Ambarchi, Akira Rabelais, Giuseppe Ielasi, Jim O'Rourke and others. And despite his overt connection with musique concrète, there are few of the usual stylistic components on show here - Bonnet takes compositional inspiration, but leaves it at that. The title track is an apt introduction, bringing us into Bonnet's sonic space abruptly and immediately drawing attention to the texture and physical processing of his sounds. Carnivalesque organ groans are rotated unevenly across the sound-field, crumpled into tiny spheres before being tossed into a booming cavern; it's deeply visual music that almost jumps from the speakers, propelled by its own corporeality.
An ill-informed read might mistake the gestures Bonnet makes as being soundtrack-inspired, but he's careful not to fall into any of these obvious, overwrought traps. Instead he uses maudlin sounds (furtive strings, loping basses, orchestra pit trumpet blasts) as subterfuge, loading the body of each track with bewildering psychedelic edits and unstable, kaleidoscopic drones. 'Dissipation of Light' feels like being trapped in a flickering cathode ray projection, warbling synthetic tones dissolving into feverish wails that might seem static until you tune yr ears into the inherent burr. A flute-like tone heaves into view and Bonnet ratchets up the amplitude, suggesting the tenor of power ambient without repeating the maligned subgenre's fragile peacocking. On the delirious 'Gullintoppa', the Cristal Baschet - an organ made from glass rods that was a favorite instrument of the concrète set - is used to add resonance and drama to Bonnet's meticulous factory-fresh environmental clatter, and on 'Allée des Brouillards' he layers instrumental loops asymmetrically to propose a vertiginous counter to Basinski's loping "Disintegration Loops" memorials.
Brimming with ingenious rhymes and subtle top-down gallic humor, "Shifted in Dreams" sounds like a panopticon-style overview of an experimental music landscape that's become ensnared in its own self-mythologizing and lumpen, ornamental repetition. His approach isn't cynical, he's dreaming of a radically healthier creative incubator that spies its subject matter from different angles, re-interpreting and re-evaluating rather than accepting raw sound (and its underlying philosophy) as sacrosanct. When his music is lonely and pensive, like on the funereal closing track 'Carcosan Cycles', it's also hopeful. Like Gavin Bryars' chafing descent into murky blackness on 'Sinking of the Titanic', Bonnet's hymn is pierced by loss and if it isn't exactly lifted to the surface, it's allowed to marinate in its own ideas until it drowns in temporality. We have more than a sneaking suspicion that this one will grow and grow in the next few weeks and months - ignore it at ur peril.
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