releases

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cdr #3 (2010) cd-r

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cdr #3 (2010)
("the ovary of future")
1 track, 19 minutes
released march 2010


excerpts











reviews

The third release by Chemins from Finland (see also Vital Weekly 707 and 716), and again its a twenty minute work, working from a rock end improvisation in the area of drone music. Even more here than before. Drums seems absent, or play rotating tunes with objects on the toms? The guitars can being played with e-bows or violin bows and all along there is a bunch of field recordings; I assume these are played on a laptop which is also responsible for the electronic sounds in the music. Like with their second release, this piece has two distinct parts, broken up by some louder parts on the guitar but in the second half it moves more and more into an electronic field. Again an excellent piece, on par with the previous two releases. Chemins, people, Chemins. Get them for your label. Please listen up. I tell you, you won't be disappointed. (Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly 725)

Got the third release (CDR #3) in a series by the Finnish mystery project Chemins, which you can only procure from their website. One twenty minute track called ‘The Ovary Of Future’ is simple droning music perhaps created by layering acoustic instruments and pouring the results through various digital filters; not un-nice, but not particularly memorable either. (Ed Pinsent, The Sound Projector, 17.4.2010)

Chemins are a mysterious Finnish project working the droney side of the street on this one-track CD-r. Not much information is out there on this band; no band members are listed on their myspace page or on their blog, and repeated searches procured no further information regarding instrumentation or the names of the people involved.
As for the music? Carefully combined guitar and synth sounds hiss and hum while assorted field recordings whirr and crackle, and a patient, elegant feeling emerges as "The Ovary of Future" progresses through its nineteen-minute running time. The blissed-out warmth of the beginning gives way to a darkening mood; a repeating low piano chord signals the start of the piece's second segment, which uses a low-in-the-mix clicking noise to undercut the gentle burble of a moody synthesizer drone. The track returns to its original part briefly, before a pulsating synth figure arrives to ride the drift to its coda. The breadth of this composition is impressive, as is its execution.
"The Ovary of Future" touches on sounds explored by artists like Birchville Cat Motel and Stars of the Lid, but Chemins go beyond mimicry to establish their own identity. On "CDR #3" Chemins demonstrate tremendous restraint and control in their sound, as if they know that getting there is half the fun of any journey. It will be interesting to see where they go from here. (Mike Griffin, Foxy Digitalis, 26.5.2010)

Every other month or so in 2010 I've received another little 20 minute postal missive from this Finnish outfit. This one is, at least initially, a far more solemn affair than the other two filled with trepidation and despair before opening up in the latter half of the album into a gloriously expansive cosmic keyboard swirl.
Across the three releases Chemins have proved themselves to be adept at shifting between the poles of ambient music and have already created a body of work that many in the field would (and should) envy. They produce music that exists in and of itself without any of the tiresome and trite clichés appended to it that so haunt this little corner of the music world. Recommended. (Ian Holloway, Wonderful Wooden Reasons 06/2010)

Troisième volet de cette série de CD-R produite par les finlandais de Chemins, toujours réalisé selon les mêmes critères : auto-production, format EP avec une pièce unique d’une vingtaine de minutes, et on commence à apprécier la cohérence graphique de leurs pochettes à base de peintures. Par contre toujours pas plus d’infos sur les membres de cette formation...
Étant donné la fréquence de sortie de ces disques, et le fait qu’on en chronique presque un par mois, on sait a peu près à quoi s’attendre avec ce cdr #3, ce qui ne gâche en rien notre plaisir. Le groupe mélange les sources sonores, entre drone, field recordings, nappes, improvisations acoustiques et traitements électroniques et continue à surprendre de part les variations et combinaisons infinies que permettent ces éléments.
La musique de Chemins est d’une incroyable finesse. En l’espace d’une dizaine de secondes, on devine une nappes électronique proche du drone, une autre qui semble être créée par la résonance d’une cymbale, puis une sorte de brève note de guitare. Bientôt c’est un souffle qui imite une respiration, et l’ensemble des éléments crée un magma doux et cotonneux, hypnotique. The Ovary of Future puisque c’est le titre de cette unique pièce, se révèle être la production la plus ambient de Chemins. Même si l’on retrouve des sonorités plus habituelles des musiques improvisées (cuivres retenus, petits grincements acoustiques), tous ces éléments jouent de concert en créant une sorte de drone sans cesse oscillant.
L’unique morceau se compose de trois parties marquées par le claquement d’une percussion métallique, abordant dans un deuxième temps de denses fourmillements, chaleureux crépitements, tintements sur des nappes linéaires, pour finir par un dernier mouvement plus classiquement ambient, à base de nappes et boucles de synthés pour un résultat très psyché-krautrock. Malgré ces trois parties distinctes et comme vu précédemment, la musique de Chemins se présente comme un continuum sonore, une exploration des combinaisons du son.
Peut-être séduit par la teneur ambient de ce nouveau volet, cdr #3 est certainement la production de Chemins que l’on préfère à ce jour. À noter que pour faire suite à ces EP, le groupe prévoit logiquement un premier album courant 2011. (Fabrice Allard, EtherREAL, 1.8.2010)

Finnish project Chemins return to tempt with their particular brand of mysterious anonymity. They are keen to use the internet to breed the sense of curious distance in the listener. The music itself only amplifies this tendency in their preference for recording and releasing long tracks with titles that avail of few handles to grasp onto for understanding. This installment is called The ovary of the future. Your guess as to it’s portent is as good as mine.
Musically it is a drone like journey, guitars and synth played and manipulated until their traditional intonation has dissolved. Combined this with field recordings, electronic glitches, high end digital static and what sounds like Tibetan prayer bowls; but could easily be another instrument reshaped into the sonic form. The sound of the gong just over half way through announces a busier ambience, which equates to more parts defining the warm blissed out static tones and moving into a hushed gurgling tonal cycle with a low water like trickle of sound. Then after a hush there gathers a final movement, pulsing tone synth action, which a church organ like reverence, scattering effects and chirping little melodic flourishes. (Innerversitysound / Cyclic Defrost, 2.8.2010)