Frédéric Nogray — Vaccabons Et Malfactours

Kaon imprint presents Vaccabons Et Malfactours, a 3” CD-R by musician, composer, and soundscaper, Frédéric Nogray. This entry rounds out the 3rd season of the la reviere project, a project based on field recordings of the Taurion River captured by Cédric Peyronnet. This disc came out in 2013, however 18 other artists have tackled this same source material prior to this particular release. Some artists have heavily manipulated the material whereas other have kept it relatively close to the raw recordings. Nogray’s offering falls in the later category.

I find it increasingly difficult to critique these types of releases as they are what they are. You pretty much know what you’re getting yourself into. That's necessarily a bad thing, but I find field recordings, especially those that are raw or minimally manipulated, to be a love it or hate it affair. I tend to like found sounds and nature recordings. Often when I go through a long periods of time  listening to this type of stuff, I begin to wonder: when do field recordings cease to be experimental music and begin to become a sleep aid found in new age establishments?

What I can say about Vaccabons Et Malfactours is that it is a 20 minute piece populated with the sounds of: birds, the moving waters of a stream, crickets, rainfall, wading through water, ducks, perhaps the crackling of a fire (or crunching footsteps on twigs), cars, an airplane flying overhead, in other words, a whole panoply of outdoor and nature sounds. It is all expertly captured in crystal clear clarity and edited superbly by Norgray. I will say that there is a momentary sound dip at around the 5 minute mark that was kind of oddly placed, nothing really off-putting or too disruptive to the flow, just a strange stopping point. I have to admit this was a nostalgic ride for me as it conjured up memories from a recent vacation in the woods where I was surrounded by many of the similar sounds presented on this disc.

At twenty minutes, it’s a nice relaxing jaunt, not too involved, just enough to bring a little peace to your day. Think of it as a cat nap rather than an extended slumber. Returning to my question as to whether this is a piece of experimental music or a sleep aid? I put this on last night as after a long bout of insomnia and the sounds were an enjoyable prelude to a very much needed slumber. And there’s nothing wrong with that...nothing at all.