Pierre Bastien & Michel Banabila - Nuits sans Nuit [Pingipung - 2025]" /> |
What is the music that comes after the apparent exhaustion with all forms of sonic articulation? Pierre Bastien & Michel Banabila have managed to construct a soundtrack for such times, fueled by enervation rather than anything like an endgame or final statement. Nuits sans Nuit is the result, and with titles like, "Closing Time: The Party is Over", "Waste Disposal", and "Here Is Your New Anthem", the thematic lines are clearly drawn. The music is primarily electronic landscapes, sparse and droney, populated by various acoustic instruments – double bass, reeds, etc. Things move as listelessly as one would expect them to under such an umbrella and have the sensation that the performers are just about ready to give up. No pathos about, though, just really being done. All of a sudden, "Not In Our Name" lays down an electronic kick drum and thoughts turn to potential rebirths or something productive emerging from the ennui. Sadly, no, the track devolves as quickly as it began, and it's back to the inertia and fatigue, with tempi that feel like worn out tape. Maybe it's the instruments themselves that have had enough and Bastien & Banabila are merely the stewards of their desire to cry uncle. This reversal pf agency is hinted at in the title, Nuits sans Nuit, which, when spoken, sounds an awful lot like Nuits s'ennuient, roughly "the nights are getting bored."
However translated or understood, Nuits sans Nuit is too colloquial to qualify as electroacoustic music, and far too weird to pass as garden-variety electronica. I think fans of any or none of the above might want to listen to what it sounds like when the desire to adequately mirror the tumult of the present suddenly fades, and almost disappears altogether.    Colin Lang
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