André Stordeur — Complete Analog and Digital Electronic Works 1978-
Complete Analog and Digital Electronic Works 1978-2000 is spread over three discs, and presented in a fold-out digipak, featuring photographs of the beautiful, old machines Stordeur has used over the years. Each CD is themed, and for selfish reasons, I’ll run through them in reverse order.
Disc three, 6 Synthesis Studies Circa 2000, is perhaps the sore thumb of the trio. In 1968, Stordeur visited New Delhi, India, and took tabla, and sitar classes. The 6 tracks on the last disc are entitled Drone, Raga, Karma, Tablas, Clarinet Solo, and Like Phil, and were produced in the 2000s, as an attempt by Stordeur to recreate those Indian sounds. Thus, as you might imagine from the titles, the pieces are technically interesting, as synthesis, but not always necessarily too gripping beyond that - they are ultimately electronic attempts to mimic acoustic sounds. However, Karma is driven along on funky, motorik tabla rhythms, whilst Tablas is honestly like some very strange drum & bass workout. Like Phil ends the disc with a psychedelic exercise in repetition (indeed, the ‘Phil’ might be Philip Glass…) - not too far from the kind of thing you might find on an old Orb album.
The second disc, Analog and Digital Works 1980-2000, features three tracks, one of which stretches out over 35 minutes. That long piece is also the first piece, Oh Well; it marshals a barrage of rattling percussion, and frenetic squelching, before entering into a shimmering hall of atonal, arrhythmic metallic chimes. The work pursues this tension between physical, rhythmic elements, and more unstable, ethereal directions, throughout. There’s a wobbliness, a wooziness, that permeates the entire recording. Chant IOA, the second piece, is a wonderful, rich drone, that lulls the listener before suddenly unleashing mangled vocal samples around the 12:30 mark. These are genuinely quite startling. Nervous, the last track, and a mere eight minutes in length, is a live performance (presumably from 2000). It carves out a constantly shifting soundscape, often haunting, and using swirling, siren-like tones.
The first disc, 18 Days 1978-79, contains Stordeur’s first solo work proper, six tracks originally released on vinyl in 1979. I’ve left this selfishly to last, because it’s very simply an incredible work. In the booklet Stordeur says that, ‘With this recording I have tried to offer to the public an alternative to the so-called ‘cosmic’ electronic music played and promoted intensively by the mass media daily’, but ironically enough, my initial thoughts on the first track, To You, were that it was a little safe - a gentle, melancholic ambience, that I didn’t expect. However, the rest of the album just hit me square in the chest - and in doing so, redeemed and justified that introductory piece. I wouldn’t want to ruin it for anyone, because I think anyone interested in the history of electronic music should search this album (and the CD set) out, but suffice to say 18 Days is quite a journey. Sometimes sparse, dark, and unsettling, at other points, overloaded, frenetic, and colourful; the album really does have an alien atmosphere. Whilst technically rigorous, and abstract, there is a compositional awareness that never allows the works to disappear into mere difficult obscuration. Memories is particularly good, sounding very contemporary - even like a subdued piece of power electronics, in places.
This is a another great set from Sub Rosa, again turning the spotlight onto a less famous figure in the history of electronic music. The set has photographs, a short essay providing background to the pieces, and even short texts on each track by Stordeur himself. The CDs are all highly recommended, covering a wide range of sounds and approaches - with the caveat that 6 Synthesis Studies is essentially just that.