d'incise: Rivages sur l'antipode
ini.itu

Laurent Peter's latest (vinyl only) d'incise recording, Rivages sur l'antipode (“Shores on the opposite side of the earth”), is based on similar archival material to that used by Francisco López for his untitled #228. There the similarities end, however, as the electroacoustic interzone mapped out by d'incise's release is as unique as López's. Peter's been producing electronic music under the d'incise moniker since 2002 and is a veteran of labels such as Gruenrekorder, Audioactivity, and Resting Bell, so he's more than capable of crafting polished and highly personalized music, as Rivages sur l'antipode (available in 250 hand-numbered copies) shows to ample degree.

The album features eight future-gamelan settings infected by viral strains of broken melodies and collapsing rhythms. There's a distant trace of dub in the material's sparse bass lines, a sense of digital processing in its use of grainy textures, and an ethnographic quality too in its subtle integration of field recording materials (taken from Jakarta, Makassar, Bandung, and Yogjakarta). Voices and percussive elements punctuate the tracks' crackling surfaces, while the bone-rattling throb of the bass keeps the elements from splintering apart. In tracks like “Cérémonie des voûtes” and “Les barrières troubles,” wheezing, bass-thudding pulses merge with Burial-like percussive hyperactivity in a convulsive manner that suggests a mutant genre one might label viral gamelan or cryogenic dub. During “Plages vergognes sans brise,” a village's church bells resound against a flickering backdrop of bass pulses, whirrs, hiss, and clicks, and one track is even called “Humidité,” an apt choice given the tropical heat that rises off of the typical d'incise producion. With all of the tracks sticking to four-minute lengths and the album itself weighing in at thirty-six minutes, Rivages sur l'antipode impresses as a refreshingly direct and concise statement.

February 2011