Marc Baron & Jean-Philippe Gross - Black, Pink And Yellow Noises [Eich Records - 2022]Black, Pink And Yellow Noises is a release that brings together scattered sonic elements, samples and electronic tones- all combined to create a fully charged & wholly rewarding cut-up sound collage. This is the debut collaboration between Frenchmen Marc Baron and Jean-Philippe Gross. The experience of this album is akin to rapidly searching through radio stations - creating a solid yet seemingly spontaneous outcome. Black, Pink And Yellow Noises is heavily based on the Dadaist principles, where various chunks of sound, are mixed with different qualities and dynamics- in a totally chaotic, yet somehow beautiful manner. With enjoyment derived from the fluidity of the material itself and the masterful craftsmanship behind it. Maybe not everything within Black, Pink And Yellow Noises is what you might expect, as the contradiction between the different sounds is a key aspect. Obviously, it’s a sound art album, saturated with a multitude of aesthetics and sound forms, which is then homogenized into a thick sound stream.
This is the perfect example of contemporary musique concrète, where sounds are either modified or left alone as they originally were, with tape music techniques being employed in order to assemble the processed material into some sort of audio montage. Every sound within is keeping its qualities intact and the punchy production with the kick-in-the-head bass tone, adds to the whole outcome nicely
Interestingly enough, the raw materials used, come from an array of places, and as such, the twenty pieces on the album cannot be easily tagged/ quantify - thankfully – there is shape/flow present throughout mixed with playful digs at forms of power, abstractness and experimentation. From tiny sounds to beats, to drones and to harsh noise, Black, Pink And Yellow Noises is screaming plurality and surprise, god is dead, and is permitted!
The theoretical basis of musique concrète was first proposed and developed by French composer Pierre Schaeffer in the early 1940s, and while this clearly follows the template- it adds its own rewarding twists to the form. Simply put, it was a delight to listen to- been thirty-five minutes of crushing awesomeness. To pick a copy up yourself- head here Karl Grümpe
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