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12"
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IF 2082EP
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The two pieces Gaspar Claus brought together on Scaphandre form an abstract and mysterious B-side of Tancade, released in the fall of 2021. Both composed during the long, initial period of his first album's conception, this mini album's two episodes, each tinged with minimal and noisy abstractions, unfold more than ten minutes of total immersion into the abyss of experimental music on the first, and drone for the second. In their own way, these tracks are a form of raw, unadorned escape, a film negative of the cellist's surface creations, which we know are bathed in sunshine and fresh air. "Inside" is a moment of distraction while Gaspar worked on a film soundtrack. The title took time to mature in the musician's head, abandoned then picked up again and modified until it found its signature progression of strings where time seems suspended. The reverberations dress its fourteen-minute sound canvas in a way that is reminiscent of endless, sub-marine darkness. "Beyond" was recorded in three takes during a writing session for his first album with David Chalmin in the Basque Country. The post-production phase required a long process of refinement to obtain this invasive sound material that cuts the listener off from their real environment and films them with a hypnotic feeling of depths and apnea. Taken in 1898 by Louis Boutan a few dozen kilometres from the beach of Tancade in Banyuls sur mer -- Gaspar's family village -- the photographs of Scaphandre seal the vinyl sleeve with a unique auditory experience presenting the submerged side of the cellist. Obscure, dense, haunting, excitingly weightless.
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LP
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IF 1065LP
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LP version. On his debut solo album, French cellist Gaspar Claus takes you on an imaginary journey to a remote beach, lost between the rocks and the sea, the earth and the sky, where a group of like-minded individuals retreat to find themselves. Film soundtracks, post-classical, ambient, neo-flamenco, pop, electro, contemporary jazz,: his field of investigation expands ever wider. Claus has made collaboration his teacher, developing his sound and musical storytelling by working with artists from diverse backgrounds, including such luminaries as The National, Jim O'Rourke, and Ryuichi Sakamoto. Rubbed with a bow, plucked, brushed, bumped, caressed, jostled, transfigured, the cello is the only musical instrument used on the album. The album is the result of a long creative process that began in 2017, when Gaspar Claus spent a few days alone near a small village in the Luberon, Barlande. Fully experiencing the anguish of creative solitude, he warded off his fear of emptiness by retrieving memories that resulted in the recording of sketches for a dozen pieces. The Covid-19 pandemic curtailed Gaspar's globetrotting habits, paradoxically enabling him to refocus on his own music, and to mould his pieces into a fascinating collection of impressionist compositions. Entirely (or almost entirely) instrumental, Tancade contains a total of eleven tracks. The result of slow, painstaking and sometimes painfully elaborate work, the album nevertheless has a remarkable fluidity and drive. From the opening track, "Une île" (an island), enveloped in a powerful auroral glow, one is carried far away from the everyday by a music that is both majestic and adventurous. The album evokes chamber music suspended in the fourth dimension, the soundtrack of an experimental film or the strange folk music of an undiscovered tribe. Gaspar aims to zoom into our mind's eye like the director of a movie: arriving on the mainland, your eyes turn to the shoreline ("Un Rivage") before recognizing the presence of a group of individuals. "Une Foule" starts by tiptoeing, shuffling timidly on a plucked beat. Then, at the halfway mark, it swells into something more precise and energetic. On "2359" (one minute before midnight) the cello, used as a hypnotic, percussive arpeggio, is then joined by another, played through a distortion pedal like a lead guitar. The album then begins a progressive movement towards the sky and extra-terrestrial landscapes with "Au Confins", before summoning cosmic entities on "Ô Sélénites". Fiery, eventful and underpinned by an unfathomable melancholy, the journey ends with "Mer des Mystères Amoureux".
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CD
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IMPREC 378CD
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"Tradition belongs more to the present than the past. For three weeks Parisian cellist and composer Gaspar Claus met with traditional and modern Japanese musicians in a Tokyo studio to record Jo Ha Kyu. Performing with Claus on this piece are: Eiko Ishibashi (voice, piano, drums), Keiji Haino (voice), Kakushin Nishihara (voice, satsuma biwa), Ryuichi Sakamoto (piano), Hirochimi Sakamoto (electric cello), Sachiko M (sine wave), Otomo Yoshihide (turntable), Leonard Eto (wadaiko), Kazutoki Umezu (tenor saxophone) and Kazuki Tomokawa (voice, guitar). Modern Japanese culture is colored, in part, by ancestral shades. Where other countries are willing to forget their past as they move forward, Japan values local tradition over global culture. Japanese tradition is clearly evident in the music of the Japanese avant-garde. Listening to the music of the Japanese avant-garde, one can easily detect that they belong to the great tradition of Japanese music which continues through them. 'Jo-ha-kyu' is a concept of modulation and movement applied in a wide variety of traditional Japanese arts. Roughly translated as 'beginning, break, rapid,' it essentially means that all actions or efforts should begin slowly, speed up, and then end swiftly. Jo-ha-kyu has been used in many aspects of Japanese culture including writing music, dance, theater, literature and even floral arrangement or tea service."
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LP
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IMPREC 378LP
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