Henry Smith / Brainwashed.com / February 2009
It is little surprise that French electroacoustic composer Berangere Maximin's
musical path has consisted of both conservatory studies under Denis Dufour
and stints in rock and world bands. Her solo debut consists of six works that
expound upon the tape manipulations of Pierre Schaeffer, but whose sense of
drama maintains her contact with the popular musical forms that she has
partaken in.
Maximin clearly has a knack for making the most of her tools. Using only
tape and voice, she displays a highly mature sense of patience in her
composition, allowing each piece to unfold into its own entity that is ripe with
morsels of surprising humor and effect. On the opening title track, she
begins by working with water sounds that bubble calmly beneath frozen
melodic lines that spread out across the piece as small bits of rhythmic insect
chatter emerge from the background. The amount of sound at any given
moment is impressive, but more impressive is the fine management of those
sounds as Maximin never lets the work become claustrophobic, allowing each
individual noise its own space in the mix. As birds come in, a catapult sound
initiates an increasingly bustling world that goes from serene New England
forest to steaming swampland without a hitch. It is as much James Ferraro as
it is Luc Ferrari.
Read more
Henry Smith / Brainwashed.com / February 2009
It is little surprise that French electroacoustic composer Berangere Maximin's
musical path has consisted of both conservatory studies under Denis Dufour
and stints in rock and world bands. Her solo debut consists of six works that
expound upon the tape manipulations of Pierre Schaeffer, but whose sense of
drama maintains her contact with the popular musical forms that she has
partaken in.
Maximin clearly has a knack for making the most of her tools. Using only
tape and voice, she displays a highly mature sense of patience in her
composition, allowing each piece to unfold into its own entity that is ripe with
morsels of surprising humor and effect. On the opening title track, she
begins by working with water sounds that bubble calmly beneath frozen
melodic lines that spread out across the piece as small bits of rhythmic insect
chatter emerge from the background. The amount of sound at any given
moment is impressive, but more impressive is the fine management of those
sounds as Maximin never lets the work become claustrophobic, allowing each
individual noise its own space in the mix. As birds come in, a catapult sound
initiates an increasingly bustling world that goes from serene New England
forest to steaming swampland without a hitch. It is as much James Ferraro as
it is Luc Ferrari.
"Boudmo" further explores the organic take that the composer displays. Once
she has created her own sonic landscape through field recordings, she
concocts a pulse over which guitar strums are allowed to reverberate and
punctuate. As assorted hollow sounds and clicks return, the piece exhibits an
affinity with the results of chance operation pieces; each moment is given its
place and allowed to become an event of great significance.
Maximin herself speaks on the following "Ce Corps Vil, Part one and Part two,"
reciting sensual French prose beneath metallic caresses and echoed water
drops. As her vocal recitations come and go, the background remains near
stagnant in mood despite its ever changing makeup. "Voyages
Morphologiques," the most overtly songy piece on the album, sees Maximin's
world music affinities come to a fore as African style acoustic guitar is melded
with snake charming hornlines and folk fiddling, building in momentum as
each bit hastens its immediacy to near fever pitch before harp enters to close
the work with a wink and a shrug.
Despite the vast accomplishments of previous electroacousticians, Maximin
manages to carve out her own corner of the sound. "Si Ce N'est Toi" begins
with minimalist rhythmic movements as covered by nearly cheesy synthesized
horns as bellows of vocal resonance bounce in the background. With great
energy the piece plugs along before slipping down into a furrowed world of
industrial static and dissonant pulse before Carl Stalling-like riffs briefly
interrupt before allowing the work to subside under its own endless beat.
"La Mecanique des Ombres" closes the album with its longest track, a
sprawling entrance into the hull of some ship. Using her sounds in a
distinctly musical manner, Maximin uses a Varesian noise-as-compositional
tool to create a percussive work whose end result is one of great energy
despite the often minute sounds that are used. That the composer can utilize
these sounds to create works of strong individual character and impressive
emotive depth is a testament to her achievements and further potential as a
sonic collagist.
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The Wire | 297 | Unofficial Channels | November 2008
Bérangère Maximin is a Paris based acousmatic composer, formerly a student
of Denis Dufour, who in turn studied with defining figures in the
electroacoustic field such as Pierre Schaeffer and Claude Ballif.
The essence of
acousmatic composition and its reception is severing of visual links between
sound materials and their source in order to prioritise ear above eye as an
instrument of consciousness. Nonetheless, Maximin's declared aim is to
preserve in her tape music the spirit of live performance. Far more easily said
than done, especially when constrained by stereo CD format, although her
presence on John Zorn's uncompromisingly energetic Tzadik label in itself
suggests a degree of success. Certainly her music is vividly direct.
(…) This
music enacts the coming together of sounds found and contrived. Maximin's
light touch and discreet dramatic effectiveness bear comparison with Luc
Ferrari's deft musical essays on relationships between incident and intention.
Tant Que Les Heures Passent also offers a lively jingle made for some global
music radio show ; a patchwork of texts read in French against low-key
electroacoustic backdrop ; syncopated minimalism reminiscent of trumpeter
John Hassell's take on Aka Pygmy chants ; and an ominous soundscape
packed with nautical creaks, tolling bells, heavy footfalls, bursts of orchestral
melodrama and drums.
Altogether a nourishing selection.
Julian Cowley
-------------------
Spiritual Archives / Oct. 14th 2008 /
First of all, this is a beautiful work, captivating because of its sonorous
themes, its refined sound constructions, its hypnotic passages.
Bérangère Maximin is native of the island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean,
lives in Paris since 2002, has been a singer in various bands and now
inhabits in the acousmatic world.
“Tant Que Les Heures Passent” is her first collection of compositions, despite
some musical works released in the past years.
An absolutely astonishing album made of six pieces filled with ingenious
solutions found by the aid of a tape recorder.
Each of these shows an accurate assemblage of sound objects managed, what
produces awesome effects.
So, the title track is a strange mixture of water gurgles, chirps, mechanical
noises; “Boudmo”, the second piece, starts with a dripping overlapped by a
percussive rhythm and sweet sounds of strings as long as new crunchings
come on.
The subsequent fifteen minutes ("Ce Corps Vil, Part One And Part Two")
consist of recordings combined with modulated words of Bérangère which
trace out the patterns, waving in the air, then a little dive into an ethnic dance
("Voyages Morphologiques") before coming back to the tape music.
A nice surprise for people who loves the avant-garde side of Tzadik.
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