MELODIUM

Hum hum & bla bla EP

CD/download, autres directions

My first thought was along the lines of music made for a movie never made but desperately wanted to be seen, but then I realized how bland and overused this metaphor was. But it coming to my mind by itself convinced me to write it down nevertheless, but at least with a little disclaimer as you have read above. You might already know Melodium aka Laurent Girard from their very fine last album “La Tete Qui Flotte” (also on autres directions) and not too much has changed.

Of course, the three remixes of said album included on this EP stand out. I think it was a fine idea to mix these remixes amongst the rest of the tracks and not, as usual, put them at the end as a sort of appendix. They really liven up the record and the listening experience. There are three remixers fom various places doing their thing amongst them Marsen Jules (Autoplate and City Centre Offices). The remixers throughout are using more levels on their tracks, which might be due solely to the fact that they wanted to use original material and their own and bring it together. Depressifs track, for instance, is a wonderful mixture of melancholic keyboards and strings and soft idm-percussive beats with some noise mixed in. Moreover, the remixers have obviously made a point of not losing the original atmosphere and smell of Melodium and really fit into the overall feeling of the record very well. So much, in fact, that if you didn’t know about them, you wouldn’t suspect you’d be listening to remixes.

On his own tracks Girard has moved towards a more cinematic approach, if you are inclined to call it that. Melodies move towards the front of the mix and are being eaten up by some gentle beats and soft noise towards the end. The melodies range from full epic strings winding out along landscapes to little kid’s piano (a very talented kid, actually) playing whispering gently through the rooms. He doesn’t shy away from some kitschyness as well, for instance some piano-keyboard and string interplay, but which is always cloaked in some postmodernism of hybrid beats and a multi-level noise. Usually there are several things going on at once, though never too many or distracting or conflicting ideas. This way he moves from emotion to emotion, from candlelight to candlelight in beautifully gentle stride.

All in all Melodium is the most classical (in the proper sense of the word) composers on autres directions (just listen to the grandeur of the organ on the final track, it is almost like an oratorium for religious liturgy, though I am not sure how much of that is Marsen Jules’ work, probably a lot judging from his latest album “herbstlaub” …) at least in spirit and that goes a long way for me.