Basically, seven of the eight tracks on “Un Coeur Simple” all do the one same thing, albeit do it well. So, these pieces each plot a differing route through the land of drone. The overall tone is neither overtly dark nor overtly fluffy, instead most of the tracks pursue a lushness tinged by melancholy or eeriness; and whilst there is a definite air of academia, “Un Coeur Simple” is certainly not a “difficult” album of static tones, speaker-bothering frequencies or formal gestures. Instead, we have warm, thick drones, that flow along quite animatedly at points; sometimes strong (on “Maison”), sometimes with an organic hesitancy (“Memoire”). There’s a clear other-worldliness to the proceedings, with beats in the tones suggesting dread as well as lurking, alien elements; but its accompanied by a clear worldly earthiness too: the main modus operandi would appear to be the time honoured tradition of “ebows plus zither plus laptop”, and this has obvious side products of little clinks and string noises, grounding the drones in reality. These “noises” are foregrounded in “Devenir Sound” (the one track not truly a drone), which eventually lays morse code bleeps across the playing of a scratchy old record; by the end of the track, Mathieu has conjured scraping, buffeting noise akin to trains from his acoustic instruments. Ancient phonograph recordings make an appearance on “Felicite”, too; emerging in the background behind plucked, ringing zither notes. These “rough”, crackling voices make an effective contrast to the clean ambience of the album in general.

“Un Coeur Simple” is a very solidly constructed album, albeit not exactly earth-shattering. Its “experimental” by default, without being progressive or stretching any boundaries; but at the same time, makes no cheap attempts to befriend the listener with lush beauty or signposted structures. My two favourite pieces on the album are by turns the shortest and longest: “Perroquet” and “Trace”. The first features bell-like string noises embedded in the drone, as well as background clunking, and sounds to me the most rounded and colourful of Mathieu’s tracks; like a sparkling jewel slowly spinning. The latter, which closes the album, allows Mathieu to stretch out over fifteen minutes; with a shifting drone that slowly evolves through various stages of tangibility - at points, clean and strong; at others, airy and vague. It has a grandeur and narrative that the other pieces fall short on.