Troum & Christian Renou - Dissolution (Fario, 2005)

1 Christian Renou Himmelweg (Le Chemin Du Ciel) Part 1 (1:23)
2 Christian Renou Himmelweg (Le Chemin Du Ciel) Part 2 (4:16)
3 Christian Renou Himmelweg (Le Chemin Du Ciel) Part 3 (12:47)
4 Christian Renou Himmelweg (Le Chemin Du Ciel) Part 4 (7:36)
5 Troum & Christian Renou Dissolution Part 1 (6:32)
6 Troum & Christian Renou Dissolution Part 2 (7:41)
7 Troum In-Galeikon (27:26)

Plus connu par le passé sous le pseudo Brume, Christian Renou explore les textures frissonnantes et les lignes mélodiques fuyantes d'une musique essentiellement composée de field-recordings, où l'introduction de subtils motifs répétitifs, de percussions métalliques discrètes, vient apporter une profondeur chatoyante et un contraste respiratoire à une approche initialement plutôt sombre. Ses quatre compositions solos présentes sur le disque, et regroupées sous le titre Himmelweg (Le chemin du paradis) offrent ainsi une introduction parfaite, encore suffisamment aérienne et volatile, à un album des plus elliptiques, où se dévoilent progressivement derrière des ondulations sonores paradoxalement lumineuses des interrogations plus sournoises questionnant la vie, la mort ou la souffrance. A ce titre, la musique du duo Troum constitue un palier supplémentaire dans ce jeu de combinaison musicale. Les deux anciens Maeror Tri évoluent dans un registre plus magmatique, mélange de drones vacillantes et de nappes sonores rituelles et exploratoires, évoquant les circonvolutions trance chamaniques d'un Rapoon par exemple. Avec ses 27 minutes, leur pièce In-Galeikon qui vient conclure le disque, induit donc parfaitement leur goût pour les climat épiques et ambivalents, où l'ambiance musicale oscille dans un équilibre constant et précautionneux entre l'ombre et la lumière.En bénéficiant des sonorités plus lisses de Christian Renou, Troum conduit donc l'élaboration des deux volets de la pièce commune Dissolution dans un contexte encore davantage pourvu en douces vibrations mélancoliques. Finissant ainsi par adjoindre à cette prérégrination aux limites abstraites et mélodiques du genre dark-ambient, une autre quête initiatique, celle qui va traquer la lumière aux confins des ténèbres les plus noires.
Octopus

Christian Renou and Troum are veterans of the post-industrial / avant-garde cassette culture from the '80s, as the members of German drone outfit Troum previously recorded as Maeror Tri while the French composer Renou produced countless cassettes as Brume back then. The two received a commission from Fario to join forces for their first collaboration, which they developed from the weighty themes of melancholia and death. Renou begins the album with a four part solo series entitled "Himmelweg" (Way To Heaven), stretching metallic chimes and musique concrete abstractions into ghostly melodic drones. As grey and rainy as Renou's compositions appear, Troum's expansive ambience on Dissolution is all the more grim, morose, and blackened. Their heavy ominous sounds of guitar, voice, and accordion cycle through doomy melodies erupting over atavistic percussive loops, expressing a far less optimistic outlook on life and death. On the two collaborative tracks with Renou, Troum remix and manipulate source material from Renou's "Himmelweg" tracks, imploding those dreamtime sounds with nightmarish rumblings and subterranean echoings. Troum conclude the album with the darkest track on the album, an extended, all-consuming drone-mantra whose gravity field slowly sucks everything into its monochromatic void. Bleak to say the least.
Aquarius Records

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Martyn Bates & Troum - To A Child Dancing In The Wind (Transgredient Records, 2006)

1 Mad As The Mist And Snow #2 (12:59)
2 The Arrow (3:49)
3 The Magi (4:55)
4 I Made My Song (2:44)
5 To A Child Dancing In The Wind (4:18)
6 Mad Reprise (9:38)

Collaboration par voie de mail entre Martyn Bates (Eyeless In Gaza) et Troum, adaptation de poèmes de Yeats sur les drones de Troum....

'To A Child Dancing In The Wind' is a 38-minute release with 6 tracks. The lyrics of the songs are poems made by the ever-inspiring WB Yeats. The very first track is a staggering 13 minutes in length, just over one third of the whole release. It's a really calm song, with the music of Troum entertaining you just enough until Martyn's emotional voice sings the first poem of Yeats on this album. When the third paragraph of the poem is about to begin, the music as a whole becomes more intense, as if it's working towards a climax. Thing is, there are still 7 minutes left. This isn't 'solved' by repeating the whole poem again, but in the final minutes the music changes and Martyn plays the melodica (at least I think it is).

This is not your typical dark ambient, but much more a dark romantic kind of music at times. Sure, it's ambient, but it's more than just that. I say it again, I am not a big ambient fan, because I find it rather boring music. Mostly there are no vocals. But, every now and then there's this ambient work I do like. Like this one, mostly because Martyn's vocal works. In full contradiction though, the third song (The Magi) is completely instrumental, but still very good. Right after this, 'I Made My Song' is more or less a cappella, with just some minimal sound effects and loops.

If you like Martyn's voice, Troum's hypnotizing music or you're just a Yeats fan, you will certainly like this album. If you're like me, and not at all into (dark) ambient, but like some albums/artists here and there, you should check this out. If only more ambient music was as good as this, there would be more people liking this genre.

Heathen Harvest

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