Nu-C·Zn
That's How Lovers Be

At the turn of the 90s, Philippe Cohen Solal, then musical director for Virgin, becomes one of the first music supervisor in France and works on film scores by Arnaud Desplechin, Nikita Mikhalkov, Lars von Trier, Bertrand Tavernier or Kieslowski, then later composes for Tonie Marshall, Christian Vincent and Didier Le Pêcheur. He meets the very young composer and arranger Christophe Chassol with whom he will sign early 2000 soundtracks, during these sessions they create together the soundtrack of an imaginary film where music would be our spiritual food.The majority of themes are composed by Philippe with his musical partner at the time Christoph H. Mueller before they formed the Gotan Project. Unveiled here for the first time, this album pays tribute to the art of soundtracks, inspired by the world of sophisticated arrangements by Michel Legrand, Henry Mancini, Lalo Schifrin and so many others. Add a touch of folk jazz with the singers Nivo and Gabriela Arnon and the voice of the brilliant Welshman, leader of Scritti Politti, Green Gartside.

Body Meat—the project of Philadelphia-based multi-instrumentalist and producer Christopher Taylor. Streched and bold out of shape pop accompanied by mangled electronics that meld together like a beautiful peice of abstract dance. full info soon!

Interplay by YlangYlangCatherine Debard has been active as YlangYlang since 2012, a creative staple in the Montreal music community. She’s worked frequently as a collaborator, but continues developing her unique interstitial solo recordings through a variety of labels and performance experiments. Inspired in part by the writing of Danish poet Inger Christensen, in Debard’s words Interplay explores “how we are shaped and shaping our experience at the same time” and “how free we can be within our own limitations.”Full of deceptive contradictions and some of Debard’s most mature orchestration, she describes it as the final instalment in a trilogy focused on relationships. After albums focused on the external world, this time she turns her attention more intensely on “the self.” It’s a fitting meditation, reflecting on how we adapt and survive as individuals in dark times. Interplay’s warming combination of synths, field recordings, and backing instrumentation weave together toward balance. Here the mixture of stern and soft, dark and light, is seamless.

After excursions into leftfield disco and folk-jazz meditations, Vhassal is Prins Emanuel’s third longplayer. Whereas his first lp oozed youthful carelessness and euphoria and the second one takes on a more visceral note, this album breathes hope and sentimentality. It will come as no surprise that the part time fruit picker from Malmö became a father in the meantime.Still, Vhassal feels like a natural follow-up to predecessor Diagonal Musik. Essentially, it’s minimalism with plenty of surprises and the album showcases a delicate mix of instrumental proficiency and a keen sense of space. The medieval dance tempos are garnished with drum computers, and despite the synthetic sounds of the machines, all the songs have a very intuitive and organic feel, striking in some way as a culmination of PE’s previous albums.'Vaffan Sparks Du...' opens with a repetitive knock on the door, after which a drum machine driven lullaby creeps through the cracks. It’s fragile, wispy, enchanting and a definite moodsetter: this is sentimental adult music, in true Jj funhouse fashion. And so is 'Vhassal', a delicate, dubby trip that swirls through the room like a laser through smoke. The baroque, cloistral atmosphere is so thick that you can actually taste the smoke. 'Lazarus O’ E' closes off the A-side with icy foghorns. Is this a medieval lament or a hymn to sprouting snowdrops in a wintery landscape? We’re not sure, but if the Titanic houseband had synthesizers, this is probably what they would’ve sounded like.Side B kicks off in a more cheerful way with 'Vhist', a searing sliver of goosebump melancholia with beautifully bent robotic whistling. 'Girra' sounds like an instrumental lifted off some Estonian children’s choir 7” on Melodiya. It’s a deceivingly simple ditty with a far-off romantic sound that seems to reach euphoria, but then rapidly declines. 'Saker Som Sagts Och Gjorts' irrevocably shakes off the negative feelings by filtering the sound of a summery moonlit night in the French Provence through your speakers. It’s an apt prequel to the closing track, for which you should dim the lights, peak through the blinds and lay back in your ultimate easy chair. 'Principen' is the perfect soundtrack to sip a final scotch, whistle along and shed a tear to yesterday. A better future lies ahead, somewhere.

Collected Pieces: 2015-2020 by Mary Lattimore