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The movement, the sound gestures all point claustrophobically inward…until they don’t! Enter the electronic beats…and enter they do in a grand, chest-thumping peacock strut that made me smile. It all comes together to form a darkened city street, a place in the old world perhaps. Horse hooves on cobblestone streets, old-timey music, faint human presence, and movement of sound to and fro from within the headspace all mingle with an unsettling drone. The first piece, “The Lighthouse” kicks things off in an ominous fashion. I then imagined a fantasy, where a gigantic vinyl record’s grooves are replaced by the jagged outline of skyscrapers, and I, a giant, drop an impossibly-large needle and begin to ‘play’ the city. In preparing the sonic materials for these pieces, I selected, like a DJ, what I liked out of my large collection of recordings, though in my case, these are recordings of city soundscapes. Gratte-cité (Cityscraper) can be looked at as the Acousmatic world’s version of a David Lean movie…it’s that big! Bouhalassa says: It’s long, about 76 minutes but, most good journeys are. But, to really experience this album…a single listen straight through is the way to go. Unfortunately, I can’t link you to any of the works on this album in their entirety but, like all empreintes DIGITALes releases, you can sample a healthy segment of each piece on their dedicated webpage.
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(BTW, since I mentioned “synthwave”, the fact that there is even an element of it on this release really adds to its appeal when it’s mixed into the final mélange.) Much of this newer music has a retro “synthwave” vibe to it, a vibe that also pokes its head out on Gratte-cité and not in a small way. A quick search on YouTube reveals several short videos ranging from synth demos to short films and documentaries in which he created the soundtrack. I’ve looked around and it seems his Acousmatic work is limited to this release and 1998’s Aérosol (also on empreintes DIGITALes). It appears that he has his feet in two worlds, not only working in the Acousmatic space but also creating music for film, television, and video. I’ll return to the beats in a bit but a little about Bouhalassa first. And this marriage wins the “Power Couple” award usurping Brad and Angelina! He married both live and electronic drum n’ bass elements to the Acousmatic world. The beats.īouhalassa has done something that I’m sure has been done before but…not in such a seamless, organic way. The beats.įull disclosure (addendum): Now…when I listen, I’m completely enamored…and I know why. It’s this boundless, infinitely expansive journey through environments both physical and metaphysical, rooted in both real time and a temporal otherworld that elevates Gratte-cité to such a compelling listen.įull disclosure: When I first heard this, I was less than enamored…and I know why.
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I’m thinking specifically of the Gilles Gobeil/René Lussier release Le contrat (my thoughts here) and Arturo Parra’s Parr(A)cousmatique which I’ve also written about. This sense of “the epic” is familiar to me because there are other releases on empreintes DIGITALES that deliver in the same way. Ned Bouhalassa’s Gratte-cité is one of those releases that evokes, not only a long passage of time but also a vast soundscape, creating an unparalleled cinéma pour l’oreille. I’m going to dig deep into their catalog and talk about this stellar release from 2008.
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It’s been a while since I’ve contributed to my on again/off again examination of the wonderful empreintes DIGITALes label.