Top Bar
Musique Machine Logo Home ButtonReviews ButtonArticles ButtonBand Specials ButtonAbout Us Button
SearchGo Down
Search for  
With search mode in section(s)
And sort the results by
show articles written by  
 Review archive:  # a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Bruno Duplant/Reinier van Houd - Lettres et Replis [Elsewhere - 2019]

Lettres et Replis is a piano-based album that shifts between elegant harmonics and often discordant angularity. The release comes in the form of the six-track album- that’s available as either a mini gatefold packaged CD( ltd to 500 copies), or a digital download- both can be purchased from Elsewhere’s website.

The albums tracks where initially written by French composer/artist Bruno Duplant, then Dutch pianist/composer Reinier van Houd realized & played the pieces. Theses works, at moments see up to three layers of piano tracks, as well as in places unbalancing layers of field recording haze. All creating an album that sits in a fairly odd sonic place- somewhere between the delicate & harmonic Satie like composition, and edgy/ busy John Cage like prepared piano work.

The album opens with “Letter 1”- and this is the second-longest track here at just over the eleven-minute mark. To start proceedings we get a slow, lulling  & fragile piano melody- but as the track progresses we slowly but surly get the addition of at first slight off angular shifts, then as time goes on these are added to by stabbing tinklings, sudden darting mid-range notion, and high note mimicking of pattern notation. It’s certainly a fascinating, and at first jarring counterbalance - but as you get familiar with the concept of the tracks you get more & more sucked into the contrasts.


Track number three is “Lettre 2”- and this begins with a persistent & fairly violent selection of tight to & muffled piano glunks- these are decidedly discordant, and slight pitch-shifting in their attack. As the track moves on we get smaller & playful clusters of more higher noted key work- and as we get into the main of the track, these two elements start to creating an almost jerking groove.

The six & final track is "Replis 3"- this twelve-minute & forty-seven-minute track stands as one of the most disturbing & unpredictable moments here-as we start with what sounds like very muffled road field recordings. As the track moves on we get the blend of doomed & slowed low-end note hits, high pitch picks & darts, as well as later on more harmonic mids. By the final quarter of the track, we have shifts between muffled train recordings, and more manic low end clunking


Lettres et Replis is very much an album of(often violently) colliding sonic contrasts. And the juxtaposition of these is what makes the whole thing so fascinating and rewarding- yet another very worthy release from Elsewhere.

Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5

Roger Batty
Latest Reviews

Bruno Duplant/Reinier van Houd - ...
Lettres et Replis is a piano-based album that shifts between elegant harmonics and often discordant angularity. The release comes in the form of the six...
090525   Whore's Breath - Open Flask
090525   Fear Below - Fear Below( VOD/...
090525   Eela Craig - A Spaceman Came ...
080525   Shrunken Heads - Shrunken Hea...
080525   Pinocchio 964 - Pinocchio 96...
080525   Mermaid Legend - Mermaid Lege...
070525   Absurd Reality - Squeal
070525   Sado Rituals - The Harrowing...
070525   Vacuous - In His Blood
060525   Satomimagae - Taba
Latest Articles

Ennaytch - Of walls, abused hous...
Ennaytch is a US project that creates a creative, layer detailed, and often ambient-focused take on walled noise. It started in 2021, having fifty-plus relea...
090525   Ennaytch - Of walls, abused ...
150425   Dead, Dead Swans interview - ...
110325   Sebastian Tomb - Walls of unb...
040225   Alien Sex Fiend - Possessed B...
231224   Best Of 2024 - Music, Sound &...
191224   Splintered - Somewhere Betwee...
031224   Shane Ryan-Reid - Coerced and...
221024   Whore’s Breath - life’s h...
011024   David Kerekes Interview - Int...
030924   Tim Ritter Interview - Shot O...
Go Up
(c) Musique Machine 2001 -2025. Twenty four years of true independence!! Mail Us at questions=at=musiquemachine=dot=comBottom