U45 | Ludovic Medery | eMERgences
eMERgences_excerpt 1
eMERgences_excerpt 2
format : CD ltd to 200 hand numbered copies
all copies come with an additional art card on 300gr satin paper
release year : 2017
length : 30’08
track :
eMERgences
status : still available
>>> order via Paypal : chalkdc@unfathomless.net
(Belgium) : 13 € (inc.postage)
(Europe) : 14 € (inc.postage)
(World) : 15 € (inc.postage)
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: info :
An exploration of sound, from near and far / Une exploration du sonore, du proche et du lointain.
From concrete to abstract, being attentive, focused and patient… / Du concret à l’abstrait, être à l’écoute, concentré et patient…
Living each moment / Profitant de ce qui nous est offert.
A bird in the sky, an insect on my camera case / Un oiseau dans le ciel, un insecte sur la pochette de mon appareil photo.
The sun appears and disappears with the clouds / Le soleil apparaît et disparaît au gré des nuages
A global vision from the tiny and distant / Une vision globale du minuscule et du lointain
Just to hear… / Juste pour entendre… (9 June 2015)
Grey and blue merge… / Le gris et le bleu se confondent…
There…on the horizon / Là…à l’horizon
In front of the ocean, I see my past again in waves / Face à l’océan, je revois mon passé par vagues
I look for a link with the present / Je cherche un lien avec le présent
Today, from doubts to decisions, / Aujourd’hui, d’hésitations en décisions,
it is always by letting go / c’est toujours en lâchant prise
that things make full sense / que les choses prennent tout leur sens
Facing the ocean… / Face à l’océan…
I watch, I listen… / Je regarde, j’écoute… (11 June 2015)
(Ludovic Medery, June 2015)
: reviews :
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One can tell what this disc is about by focusing on the capital letters. eMERgences is about the sea. In a piece of semantic irony, the artist’s last name also cradles the word: Ludovic MEdeRy.
With little description, one is invited to interpret the half-hour, single track piece in per-sonal fashion. As a listener caught between two summers ~ the “real” summer and an upcoming southern vacation ~ I receive the recording as nostalgia and invitation. I am already missing the warmer weather, while I still feel the call to the shore. For the past few weeks, we have been experiencing the effects of offshore hurricanes, leading to pummeling surf and encroaching seas. Tomorrow, for the first time, the waters will have receded, and I anticipate sounds such as these: sea birds calling to each other, enjoying the bounty left by the retreating tide; soft waves over pebbles and sand; if I plunge my head beneath the water, the crunching of crustaceans. eMERgences may represent the emergence of subtle sound following a storm or the emergence of life as the sun ascends; it may also represent the healing qualities of the shoreline.
Medery’s soundscape preserves the idea of an ideal sea walk. There’s little danger to be found here, only a sense of sonic variety and pristine aural beauty. The eighth minute contains a sound like glass or shells, the souvenirs of the wrack line, and then perhaps the nudging of a piece of driftwood. If one takes the time, there is plenty to ex-plore. Medery’s contribution is to highlight the sounds of the shore over the sights. The sound of waves receding from pebbles is melded to the rocking of a hull. The birds sing over the insects. When one thinks of the sound of the sea, one usually thinks only of the crashing of the waves; this recording reminds us that there is so much more.
“I see my past again in waves,” writes Medery. “I look for a link with the present.” The sea changes the land: stealing, replenishing, terraforming. And yet always, even after great incursion, there is balance. The sea and the land continue to interact, neither truly hurting the other. Lava becomes rock. Rock becomes sand. It is in our nature to change as well, but always to cycle back, to return to our center, to appreciate the lessons of the tide.
Richard Allen
A Closer Listen
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As I didn’t recall hearing this name before I looked it up on Discogs and of the sixteen albums Ludovic Medery released so far, fifteen are released by himself, two of them being a twelve CDR set and the rest digital. The sixteenth album is ‘eMERgences’, released by Unfathomless. The Discogs entry he made himself, so it seems: “My name is Ludovic Medery. I am a sound artist and a social worker. I practice music and composition for about 15 years. I am interested in all the sounds of the world. I also practice free improvisation on upright bass and with electronics devices composed of tape recorders and various microphones”. The music on ‘eMERgences’ he recorded in Normandy, near the sea; hence the highlight of MER, the French word for sea. Recordings were made during a period of seven days, both during the day as well as night. The result is rather short as there is only one piece that last thirty minutes and eight seconds. As usual with this sort of thing I have no idea in what way there has been interference of the composer. Is the (contact-) microphone or hydrophone is one place and is the recording from one perspective, as a general observer? Or is the composer walking around and do we also hear his walking on shells and wood, or maybe even ‘playing’ with bits of wood, stones or shells and recording this action, as a documentation? Obviously there has been some extended mixing and editing of the material as how else could this be recorded over a period of seven days? Listening to this particular music this is not easy to say to what extent Medery does his work. I would like to think there is quite some hands on involvement in this music, rummaging small objects and working around with them, and then, once all the recordings have been made, the meticulous editing and subtle layering of the material in which the sea is the constant presence, but also animals living near the sea, insects, birds and what have you, and the crackling of leaves, branches and such like. Medery crafted quite a beautiful piece with all of this. Not really a radical new look on the subject of field recordings, which is of course no problem, and the only ‘sad’ thing is that it could have been a bit longer as far as I was concerned.
Frans de Waard
Vital Weekly
Unfathomless 