Stephan Mathieu - Kapotte Muziek By Stephan Mathieu (Korm Plastics, 2003)

1 A Microsound Fairytale 20:58

Le label néerlandais Korn Plastics édite, sous l’impulsion de Frans De Waard (Staalplaat également), dans les cadre de ses Kapotte Muziek By (série), l’enregistrement d’un concert de l’allemand Stephan Mathieu qui a eu lieu le 10 août 1996 à Berlin, mais retravaillé par ce musicien l’an passé. Usant du bug informatique comme d’une source créatrice et hasardeuse, Mathieu aurait réouvert des fichiers audio dans une autre système d’exploitation et aurait découvert lors de cette manipulation l’enregistrement dans le résultat publié aujourd’hui à savoir : 20 minutes de harsh noise, où les sons sont inlassablement lacérés, déchiquetés, désintégrés. Permet de relativiser la son d’un vinyle laissé sur une plage arrière en plein soleil. Vive les laptops.
Autres Directions

An unintentional destruction occurring to a wilful obliteration of destroyed music. That's the gist of the tenth in the ongoing commissioned series of reworkings of Kapotte Muziek, one of the many projects fronted by Frans De Waard. Stefan Mathieu is no stranger to the art of abstracting somebody else's music, as his Full Swing recording Edits aerolised Yo La Tengo, Kit Clayton, Akira Rabelais and others into dreamy vaporous clouds of digitisation. However, no such bitmapped ambience is found within his processing of Kapotte Muziek, as Mathieu's computer crashed very hard as he neared completion of this piece. After wrestling with his technology for a short time, the computer spat out this medley of his Kapotte Muziek material. The lines between the destructo-loops of faulty musique concrete and Kapotte Muziek's original erratic turntable skitter, Mathieu's shattered thoughts and the computer authored collage, are thoroughly smeared to produce a noxious and thankfully short assault of jittery noise and barking squeals.
Jim Haines, The Wire

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Stephan Mathieu - Die Entdeckung Des Wetters (Lucky Kitchen, 2002)

1 Into 5:57
2 Untitled 0:10
3 Love 6:00
4 Untitled 0:10
5 Inside 6:00
6 Untitled 0:10
7 Touch 5:30
8 Untitled 0:58
9 Die Entdeckung Des Wetters 20:02

The first part of Touch - a work consisting of four parts: 'Into', 'Love', 'Inside' and 'Touch' - 'Into', creates an atmosphere that reminds me of when I once visited Prague and travelled from church to church, viewing the various interiors of the individual churches. Occasionally there would be an organ playing music prior to a church service, that seemed to be playing themes and variations on a simple melody.

Whatever is making the sound in all these pieces seems to have the quality of glass when you fill a crystal goblet with water, dip your finger in, and rub it around the top edge of the glass to get a steady tone. In similar fashion, 'Into' creates a contemplative/meditative mood.

The second part, 'Love', sounds like the first piece turning in on itself, folding, like one kneads dough... Different parts meet different parts, but always remain a part of the whole. The same sound source seems to be used throughout these four pieces. 'Inside', is close in feeling to the first piece, with the addition of some sounds that remind me of air, under pressure, escaping intermittently. A calming sound. I couldn't help thinking of a factory of some sort, where something is being made with a machine over and over again.

The concluding part, the title track, shares the qualities of the first three pieces, with the addition of the feeling of the sounds warmed to the texture of a string section: cellos. Composed in July 2001 as an accompaniment to a glass exhibition held in an ancient glass factory in Meisenthal, France, 'Touch' is now part of a permanent exhibition there. The four pieces were played back through a small four channel speaker setup in auto-repeat, which I'm sure is a perfect environment for listening to them.

'Die Entdeckung Des Wetters' has a heavier sound, like that of the mechanical processing of something... Very meditative again, but flatter and more drawn out than 'Touch', it contains a more omnipresent drone with little delicate things being done in the distance. It is suitably permanently installed in, as it was specifically created for, an old ironworks, wherein hard coal was transformed into coke by means of baking in hot ovens for 18 hours. The original loop of 70 minutes was played back through a four channel system placed in the cokeries area of the ironworks.
Fallt Publishing

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John Hudak and Stephan Mathieu - Pieces Of Winter (Sirr, 2004)

1 01 (6:00)
2 Winter Garden (10:00)
3 ¶ (0:10)
4 04 (5:30)
5 05 (16:00)
6 06 (6:00)
7 ¶ (0:10)
8 08 (10:00)
9 ¶ (0:08)
10 Nuit Blanche (10:30)
11 11 (5:30)

C’est Varèse qui avait évoqué l’idée d’écouter le bruit de la neige qui tombe. Ce beau split album de John Hudak et Stephan Mathieu arrive au bon moment, comme pour asseoir la quiétude qu’impose l’hiver malgré sa rigueur. Pour ce disque, Hudak a enfoui ses micros dans la neige qui est devenue glace, puis s’est recouverte à nouveau de neige. La famille Mathieu a joué de l’orgue et de l’ocarina un soir de Noël. Stephan Mathieu a utilisé cette source et obtient au final un beau mélange de quiétude et d’apaisement, une immobilité saisissante. On ressent la même émotion qu’à l’écoute des phonographies polaires de Chris Watson, ou des murmures micro-tonals de Steve Roden. Comme assis au centre du cercle amical qui est à l’origine de ces enregistrements, on est saisi par le chaud-froid qui anime cette musique minimale. La froideur hostile de l’hiver se niche dans les scintillements, les craquements, les frottements ; la tiédeur du foyer exhale des drones de Stephan Mathieu, spécialiste du genre. On oublie qu’on est au cœur d’une musique expérimentale, tant ce paysage sonore sait se transformer en caresse ultra-légère. La technologie au service de la sensibilité.
Octopus

What's the sound of snow falling? On a nice, relatively warm autumn day like today, maybe not a question to think about. But two more zen-like characters like Stephan Mathieu and John Hudak think about such subtle things all the time, I imagine. Two source recordings were made for this release: John Hudak buried a "contact microphone buried overnight in snow that turned into ice, then he recorded snow falling on this enveloping ice". Mathieu's source is of him playing a pump organ and Eva-Lucy Mathieu playing ocarina. Not of course that one would recognize any as such, since both Hudak and Mathieu are skillfull operates of their computer. They can, if they want, transform the sound of an earthquack into say a beautiful interplay of small, microscopic and minimally changing set of sounds. On 'Pieces Of Winter' they don't do anything different: all of the generated sound is transformed into eleven of the sketch like pencil drawings of sound. Glacier like music is of course an all too easy made reference, but perhaps the only possible thing to say. It's like watching snow that is fresh, without traces of man or animal, being covered with more snow. Small holes are made in an irregular pattern. For both Hudak and Mathieu it's not something we haven't heard before, but they both maintain their very high quality. Great CD!
Vital Weekly

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Stephan Mathieu - Radioland (Die Schachtel, 2008)

1		Raphael (10:04)
2		Gabriel (10:02)
3		Michael (10:08)
4		Promenade (5:06)
5		Auf Der Gasse (5:03)
6		Licht Und Finsternis Zum Auge (8:20)
7		Prolog Im Himmel (7:05)

In recent years Stephan Mathieu has composed some of the very finest examples of what the microsound movement has to offer: most recently 2006's Hidden Name (Cronica) with Janek Schaefer, and before that 2004's Pieces Of Winter (Sirr) with John Hudak. Until now, the release of The Sad Mac on Japanese imprint Headz was the most recent solo recording from Mathieu, and deservingly, it found him a good deal of acclaim in the press, but Radioland sounds like a real step up for the composer and is without question one of the most beautiful albums you'll see and hear in 2008. The album takes shortwave radio signals as its starting point, meaning Mathieu instantly invites comparisons with Tod Dockstader and William Basinski, but while there's often a grainy, hazed over murk to those works, Mathieu somehow brings a luminosity and brightness out of his sources. The opening trilogy of pieces (each named after an archangel) makes for an utterly absorbing half-hour sequence, each composition spanning an immersive ten minutes of analogue-mastered, carefully processed signals. To some of the less ardent drone disciples out there, it might be difficult to accept that certain records ascribing to that format can be radically better than others, but Radioland really is. The detail, subtlety and physicality of this music transcends the norm by quite some measure, with the most involved, elaborate pieces sounding positively symphonic. Further to that, a special mention should be given to the presentation of this album: it comes in a beautiful, oversized plexiglass case with an acetate foldout cover, and the CD itself is transparent - I don't really understand what devilry makes that possible but apparently it is. In any case, this is a thing of luxurious, opulence and beauty, but doesn't nearly match the effervescent brilliance of the music it houses. Brought to you with the highest possible recommendation - "Radioland" is a real treasure that should not be missed.

Boomkat

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