Frédéric D. Oberland/Grégory Dargent — SIHR
SIHR is a seven-track journey into cross-genre instrumental/ soundscape- blending the electronic and the acoustic. Shifting from tranced-out world music to groove-locked rock, though to moody jazz guitar scaping, weird ritual-fired electronica, and beyond
The album comes presented in a thick card mini gatefold- taking abstract organic, star-bound, hazed up through the tree’s nighttime photographer, and photo of a rather creepy-looking man on a nighttime swing.
The project brings together: Frédéric D. Oberland- modular, buchla & drum synths, alto sax, electric guitar, and voice. Grégory Dargent- electric oud & guitar, analog synths, bells. Tony Elieh- electric bass & cellphone synths. Wassim Halal-darbuka- bendirs, bells & augmented percussion.
The seven tracks have runtimes between four and nearly ten minutes- with each of the tracks being highly genre-mixed, which at points is quite manic/ overloaded in their make-up. Yes, there are pared-back/ mellow moments, but the main sonic setting here is very thick & multi-layered.
We start with the longest track here “Oui-Jaa’aa”. This just shy of ten-minute track opens with a galloping ethnic bass string instrument & a hollow-bounding percussion tone. As we progress a double-stepping ethnic string tone comes in, along with a cascading/ oscillation organ pattern, another layer of galloping tabular percussion, and seesawing ethnic jazz baying.
Moving on we go from “YouGotAlight” which blends slow, mellow, moody jazz guitar, throaty/ stretched horn work, with abstract/ slurred electronica blip-blonk. Onto the skittering-retro electro tone, wondering bass, backwards baying guitar scaping, and slow/ sad waltzing groove of “Black Powder”. The album resolves with evenly cascading clean guitar work, rhythmic tubular shifts, glitching beats, and manic scape ‘n’ billow of “ Quasar in Téleutaî”.
SIHR will appeal to those who enjoy their genre-blending both layered & often manic. At points, it feels like some of the tracks will overbalance/ fall apart, but miraculously it all( just) hangs together. For more info