La Mort De L’Hippocampe is the work of recently deceased Jérôme Fontan, known for his dark electro productions as Porn.Darsteller. While literal electro traces occasionally show up in Symphonie Neuronale, the bleak menace of that project is pervasive, sharpened to a cold rusty blade alongside central European contemporary classical/cabaret elements, largely derived (I’m guessing) from synthesized sample patches.
It opens with a wallop, a brash barrage of farty synthetic brass, part oompah but more Mariarchi, fading out as synth squiggles take over. Side A’s ‘Die Sonne’ is defined by this relentless restless immediacy, taking in sad piano lines and dissonant forearm clusters, electronic bleeps and gurgles, brief snatches of Drexciyan rhythms and a melange of whispers, gasps, shouts and screams.
After this onslaught the relative calm of ‘Der Mond’ is welcomed. Rustled chairs, digital fizz and reverb squirm before settling in to a section of lieder, reminiscent of dada poetry or Schoenberg’ Sprechstimme sing-speech. Strings, warm pads and spacious piano evocatively accompany here, but the Jews harp, drum rolls, broken glass and return of the Mariarchi horns only confuse. The finale of kitsch and swinging Casio lounge rhythms seems odder still. Kitchen sink chaos, Fontan clearly going to town on his audio workstation, taking listeners on a zany, Hellish carousel ride.
Joshua Meggitt
