local exoticism
by jean-baptiste geoffroy
FORMS OF MINUTIAE fom08
Field recording cassette released on this very focussed German (I think) micro-label which is trying to provide a platform for many endeavours, including visual art and electro-acoustic music. For the field recording genre they might prefer the terms “sonic ecologies” and “attuning listenings”, both phrases which hint at the possibility of a human being aligned with their environment in a more sympathetic and holistic way. One compilation on this label is called Possible Moistures, which sounds intriguing – perhaps encouraging and enabling a variety of perceptions and multiple interpretations of that which lies beneath the sea.
French player Geoffroy has shown up once or twice in the racks, most memorably on that odd bagpipes-process record he made with Lise Barkas. On this occasion though, he’s set aside his drumming skills and set out along the banks of the Loire river he knows so well. Water, insects, wildlife, and birds all added their distinctive contributions to his tape, be it with legs, beaks, or other natural forces. Geoffroy wishes to get away from the idea of the “exotic” in field recordings, perhaps referring to those entries in the genre which were fetched back from distant and unfamiliar countries, geographically remote and inhospitable in nature. Instead, his philosophy is “go with what you know”, and he looked for traces of the divine in his own back garden. Hence the title of this release. He’s also proud of his largely-untreated approach to presenting his source materials; one side one, he collaged and edited a little, but there’s no “synthesis”, which I take to mean that no artificial processors, filters, or studio effects were involved. Ditto for side two, except for some light-touch vari-speeding and equalisation, the latter being a process which I assume eliminates the unwanted highs and lows.
Vivid, immersive environments are the result, springing into green life out of the speakers, and often delivering precisely the effect he wants – “the feeling of being in unknown lands”. (SEP 2023)
See also this record label Presque Tout, run by Geoffroy