The wonderful image below, from GoGooo’s website, sums up the production of this entire release. It’s a shot of his instruments, microphone and laptop lying strewn across a polished wooden floor, photographed from above. It is a simple and unpretentious image. It also gives an indication of the minimalism of the sounds on Nuages. It – the music, not so much the photo – is also stunningly beautiful.
A handful of acoustic instruments – kalimba, chimes, music box, guitar, shaker – are used to make the source sounds. These are then looped and very subtlely processed. Each track uses one or, at the most, two of these instruments, looped and played out for the length of the track. There’s not much more to it than that. Track titles such as ‘Un Arbre (A Tree),’ ‘Vent (Wind),’ ‘Fleurs (Flowers)’ give an indication of the mood, but it never comes off sounding like new age schmaltz. The small details in the digital manipulation keep the tracks from floating into the background – just as things begin to sound merely like a basic loop, minor stumbles and glitches catch the attention to remind that this is planned music, not just nice random sounds. It is sparse and soothing but encourages cerebral engagement, not simply an emotional response, and this is the release’s main achievement.
Nuages is only available as a free download from the French EKO netlabel. It’s a thoroughly recommended listening experience.
Adrian Elmer
