QUARTZ LOCKED - WAVE 91.6 (LP and flexi by Warm)

The new French label Warm starts out with a LP release (Warm #001) by Quartz Locked and an accompanying
flexi disc (Warm #002) with the same band teaming with Belgium's Köhn, the latter only with the first 250 copies.

All of the cover text is in French, which is a pity I think, but as someone pointed out it's not easy to translate French
into English for French speakers. Problem is then of course that foreign listeners, curious to know more, miss out
something. If I understand correctly Quartz Locked is the musical project of Julien Merieau, and with every track
he lists all the sources of the samples, which not always mean a lot to me (lots of names of people I don't know),
but also sounds from trains, The Conet Project and such like. It is quite heavy on the text side, with readings in
French rather than pieces being sung and Merieau adding mainly synthesizers, piano rhythm machines and
mixing.

From the information that came along (in English, merci!), I understand that Merieau has an archive of
sounds that he collected for a radio program, and as such we perhaps see the title of the album, and the pieces
on there upon: as a transmission of sounds and stories, with their narration, rather than regard these as songs.
Or alternatively it is like scanning the radio waves for interesting stories, sounds and music. Even when not
everything makes sense here, I would think this is quite a fine record. The music added by Merieau stays on
the minimal side of things, adding more texture like music than strict melodic musical content.

Leave it up to Köhn to add a more musical component to the music. In the three minutes their collaborative
song lasts there is a distorted rhythm at the core of the piece, along with mildly distorted guitars and a collage
of voices in vari-speed. It sounds quite a bit different from the LP, a bit wacky at that, but it makes perfect anti-
dote to the more serious edges of the LP. (FdW)

––– Address: http://www.warm-ed.com

___ Sound : http://quartzlocked.bandcamp.com/album/wave-916

SOURCE : http://www.vitalweekly.net/1029.html