“Ambient music with fragrances of abstract art music such as Brian Eno or some of Vangelis albums”
1 Ode à La Pluie 1 9:44 2 Ode à La Pluie 2 11:52 3 Ode à La Pluie 3 11:36 4 Ode à La Pluie 4 12:37 5 Ode à La Pluie 5 6:09
(CD/DDL 51:59) (V.F.)
(Ambient music)
This is the reason why we must persevere and hear an album from beginning to end before wanting to dump it. ODE À LA PLUIE! Jean-Marc Lederman is a Belgian musician, mainly keyboardist and synthesist, who is involved in different spheres of musical creativity in Belgium. Producer and director for several New Age or Punk cult groups, he made a multitude of music for movies and video games in addition to collaborating with leading artists such as Alain Bashung, Front 242 and Karl Bartos, a former Kraftwerk. ODE À LA PLUIE is a 2nd solo album and it's mainly inspired by the poems and paintings of Erica Hinyot, his wife. Moreover, the music was composed to create the ambience for the evenings of poetry and vernissage of Erica Hinyot's paintings, and other artists, during exhibitions in the art gallery Peinture Fraîche. Abstract music? More or less! Between the dead sound natures of Brian Eno and those scattered sounds of Vangelis in Invisible Connexion, the music in ODE À LA PLUIE is divided into 5 parts and each has a deeply intimate minimalist character. Here, the rain is personified by drops of glass that click on a soft grass. At times, these drops evaporate before touching the ground and their echo effects weave the romance aspect of Ode à La Pluie 1. Synth pads and subtle perfumes of sonic fog fill the atmosphere for the less empty of this title. And, surprisingly, one finds a form of musicality in these atmospheres. Especially when these drops and tender fluty synth pads intertwine their breaths and echoes in some privileged moments. You can easily sleep there, but not before you have tasted the entire Ode à La Pluie 1. And this applies for the other 4 sound chapters of ODE À LA PLUIE. Although too close to the silence of the night drizzle, Ode à La Pluie 2 goes like this contactless wind with shadows of music drifting away. Our ears can perceive some ringing, or movements of inert mass, but the whole thing is so silent that we must open the volume in order to perceive these lifeless shadows. Lively and stimulant for the neurons, the music of Ode à La Pluie 3 is more musical with different chords that fall into a choreography for ballerina alone with her thoughts. Fragile these tinkling chords and notes of a melodious piano are the accomplices of those who dared to continue the experiment beyond the first two parts. Certainly, it may seem long! But we must remember the goal, the idea behind ODE À LA PLUIE which is also a good partner to accompany our pre-sleep sessions. Ode à La Pluie 4 follows with tones of Japanese koto that rolls its notes like luminous beads on a velvet blanket. At times, it rains notes while in other times, emptiness aspires them and we hear their shadows and echoes rolling in the oblivions. At times, the distant echo can play a ghost melody, but that belongs to our perception. Ode à La Pluie 5 puts an end to this music for moods with synth pads to the colors of shadows waltzing and drifting, like a long horn swallowing the rain, the sonic drops and the sounds. ODE À LA PLUIE is another achievement of the Belgian ambient and experimental electronic music label, Wool-E Discs. The adventure comes in a box set which includes the CD and a 32-page booklet of Erica Hinyot's paintings. Other effects accompany this box that is (or was) available in a limited edition of 100 boxes. Otherwise, you can find the album on the Belgian label's Bandcamp website.
Sylvain Lupari (April 29th, 2019) *****
Available at Wool-E Discs' Bandcamp