Various – Walrus compilation

Including Walloon- and Flemish-based composers from the Brussels area (Bierges, Archennes, Leuven), this double LP set, the sole compilation to appear on Lawalrée’s Walrus Records, is also the most experimental release on the label. Dominique Lawalrée‘s own contribution, a static, elongated electric organ drone punctuated with pointillistic electronic ornaments, is more radical than other works I posted previously. The only work on this disc to make use of musique concrète sounds, extensive sound processing and studio treatment, Baudouin Oosterlynck‘s disturbing, S&M soundtrack Suite for a Bondage Room was included in the 4-CD box-set retrospective on Metaphon in 2008. The minimalist piano music of With Hidden Noise (after Marcel Duchamp) was recorded by Eric de Visscher when he was only 23-years old and is his first record release. A composer, music theorist and John Cage specialist, de Visscher became director of IRCAM in 1997 until 2003 when he became director of Musée de la Musique in Paris. Born in 1938, Robert Fesler may be the oldest composer on this compilation, yet his music sounds like contemporary electronica. Fesler was an electronic engineer who built his own synthesizer, in this case the “RPF 756”.

01 Dominique Lawalrée Still Life (18:55)
02 Baudouin Oosterlynck Suite for a Bondage Room (21:42)
03 Eric De Visscher With Hidden Noise (19:00)
04 Robert Fesler Tristesse (12:20)
05 Robert Fesler Le Temps des Poissons Touche à sa Fin (9:50)

Total time 1h 21mns
2xLP released by Walrus, ref. WLS 12 & 13, Brussels, Belgium, 1984

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Lucien Bertolina – Aller Simple

French composer Lucien Bertolina, born 1946, was first an improvisor and trombone player before becoming one of the leading figures in electroacoustic music in the South of France when he co-founded the Marseilles electroacoustic music studio, or Groupe de Musique Expérimentale de Marseille, in 1969 with Jacques Diennet, George Boeuf and Michel Redolfi. Other musicians working at the studio have included Patrick Portella and Raphaël de Vivo. Also a film music composer, radiophonic artist and field recordist, Bertolina created an independent local radio in Marseilles named Radio Grenouille with a special focus on radiophonic art and field recordings.

♫ First composed in 1982 for trombone and tape, Aller Simple was transcribed for cello and tape in 1985. The tape part consists of processed synthesizer, musique concrete sounds and found sounds including some conversation and train recordings. The music is a gorgeous, poetical travelogue retaining its mystery and impenetrability throughout the piece. In Aller Simple, the acoustic instrument runs parallel to the tape and doesn’t interfere or take the lead, while Vorticosamente is more like a cello+electronics dialogue where tape parts underline the acoustic instrument or function as a counterpoint. Some of the tape music consists in pre-recorded cello parts.

01 Aller Simple (17:45)
02 Vorticosamente (15:40)

Norbert Bordetti, cello
Lucien Bertolina, electronics and tape

Total time 33:25
LP released by GMEM, ref. AL02, France, 1985

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Dominique Lawalrée – Clandestin

Collecting tracks recorded between 1979 and 1981, Dominique Lawalrée‘s achingly melancholic Clandestin LP, published in 1982, belongs to his more “experimental” period, before he turned to solo piano and church organ – on Lawalrée, see previous post.

♫ In Clandestin, the composer explores the possibilities of various keyboards to channel his deeply nostalgic melodies, including the Wurlitzer and Hohner electric pianos, or the Yamaha CS80 and Roland String synthesizers. The music combines minimal piano playing with these electronic instruments to conjure images of an urban nostalgia infused with the personal feelings and reminiscences of a sorrowful mind. Yet each track is also complemented with either field recordings (the church carillon at end of tr.#1, the street recording on #5), spoken word (the interview on #3 and the poetry reading on #5), or found sounds (the radio report on the death of John Lennon in 1980 on #6). In tr.#5 Millénaire, it takes 5 mins to Lawalrée to muster the words “Bruxelles a eu 1000 ans cet été” (or, Brussels turned 1,000 years old last summer), as the sentence is broken into multiple parts and constantly interrupted by tentative electric piano chords.

One last thing: if you look at the front and back cover images, you’ll realize the composer is sitting almost at the same place as the little girl in the painting, as if he had paused, surrounded by autumn leaves, to listen to the absent music of some vanished musicians. I can’t think of a better metaphor to describe Lawalrée’s “musique en creux” on this extraordinary disc.

01 Rainy Sunday: Dimanche Pluvieux (6:28)
02 Le Secret Blanc (14:28)
03 La Maison Des 5 Éléments (9:34)
04 Please Do Not Disturb (2:10)
05 Millénaire (5:05)
06 Now Peace For Beatle John (2:04)

Total time 40:00
LP released by Walrus, ref. WLS 011, Brussels, Belgium, 1982

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Dominique Lawalrée – Traces

Belgian composer, keyboard player and educator Dominique Lawalrée, born in Brussels in 1954, studied music in Namur and began composing in 1973. With a name inspired by his love of The Beatles (I Am the Walrus, 1967), Lawalrée launched Walrus records in 1976 when he was only 22 years-old. Walrus was the vehicle of choice for the release of his own music, though he also published a great 2xLP compilation with Baudouin Oosterlynck, Eric de Visscher and Robert Fesler in 1984 (W.L.S. 012/13). Lawalrée’s music until the mid-1980s is a delightful mix of synthesizer exploration in the vein of Brian Eno and Roedelius, piano minimalism à la Satie, as well as personal ideas in the form of field recordings, sound collages and spoken word – for instance, his 1983 mini-LP Six jours à Barcelone (6 Days in Barcelona) included bird sounds. In the 1980s, Dominique Lawalrée also collaborated with musical ensemble TEMV with a.o. composers Guy de Bièvre, Boudewijn Buckinx, Dieter Kaufmann, Jurgen Rapp or Arsène Souffriau. Electroacoustic music composer Annette Vande Gorne was the sound engineer on several Lawalrée LPs of the 1980s like Taciturne and Litanies du Monde à Venir. At the end of the 1980s, Lawalrée changed the name of Walrus to Music Today, the label through which he releases all his music… today (see website).

♫ Published in 1978, Lawalrée’s 3rd LP Traces – the 4th Walrus release – is an instrumental sound diary of sorts, with tracks relating to personal experiences, memories and anecdotes. Immediately striking is the palpable nostalgia permeating this disc, a trait typical from this composer. The LP is also notable for the variety of techniques and experiments, something which will be less present in later solo piano albums. From the backward running tape and electronic drone of the opener to the noisy sound collage of tr. #5 K7 Music, or the atonality and furious dissonant piano chords of #4 First Meeting, the LP clearly documents early experiments in music making. Some tracks also pay homage to Lawalrée’s major influences, like #07 Hello, You’re The W. inspired by The Beatles, and #8, a Satie homage. The strange wordless singing on #06 Pleine Lune reminds Baudouin Oosterlynck’s own work with disabled people.

01 Post-Scriptum (4:45)
02 Well ! (:32)
03 Waiting For The Bus (3:48)
04 First Meeting … (5:12)
05 K7 Music (6:18)
06 Pleine Lune : Insomnie (2:33)
07 Hello, You’re The W. (5:08)
08 Musique Satieérique (1:46)
09 Et Caetera (1:36)
10 Mouvements III (2:21)
11 Minimum II (2:36)
12 Le Temps Fuit Sans Retour (4:42)
13 For Alexandre (1:31)

Total time 43:00
LP released by Walrus, ref. W.L.S. 004, Brussels, Belgium, 1978

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Partial discography until 1985
(all on Walrus Records):

1976 Infinitudes, W.L.S. 001
1977 Le choix du titre est un faux problème, W.L.S. 003
1978 Traces, W.L.S. 004
1978 Brins d’herbes, W.L.S. 005
1979 Vis-à-vis, W.L.S. 006
1980 Vice-versa, W.L.S. 010
1982 Clandestin, W.L.S. 011
1983 Six jours à Barcelone e.p., ref. S1
1984 Still life, W.L.S. 012/13
1984 Taciturne, W.L.S. 014
1985 Litanies du Monde à Venir, W.L.S. 015

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Brigitte Jardin & Claude Marbehant – Jeux de Sons et de Gestes

French educator Brigitte Jardin and composer Claude Marbehant published a total of 5 LPs during the 1980s, all on Unidisc except this one. I posted their debut “A la découverte…” and their follow up “Atmosphères” back in 2010. For an introduction to their project, please refer to the first post.

♫ “Jeux de Sons et de Gestes”, or Sound and Gesture Games, is composed of 2 suites of tiny electronic vignettes intended to inspire various games to children. The first section is Ronald et le Synthétiseur, or Ronald & the Synthesizer, where the keyboard’s zany sounds suggest body movements to the kids. In the exquisite Grand Voyage des Petites Gouttes d’Eau, or The Little Raindrops’ Great Trip, the children are asked to imagine the water cycle, from pouring rain to little stream to large river to ocean to evaporation and rain again. Helped by bass, flute and drums, the synthesizer suggests raindrops, river, waves.

Total time 33:00
LP released by Fernand Nathan, France, 1980

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