Peripheral

Once again, the two prolific artists from France have teamed up for a collaboration, and this time it takes a double album to hold the output of their immense creativity. NLC (Nouvelles Lectures Cosmopolites) aka Julien ASH from Céret in the Pyrenees and Grosso Gadgetto aka Christian Gonzalez from Lyons have already released two albums on attenuation circuit. This time around, almost all the music is performed by the two composers themselves, with guest appearances limited to Jean-Paul Escudero (violin) and François Porte (transverse flute).

The music defies easy pigeonholing, but it does create strong atmospheres. Too melodious for ambient, too abstract for pop, the tracks are reminiscent of a blend of the instrumentals from David Bowie's „Low“ album and very, very early Detroit electro (say, Cybotron's „Alleys of your mind“). The music conjures images of all sorts of peripheral areas, from darkened urban wastelands and empty nocturnal freeways to the zones of the mind between sleeping and being awake, where it's hard sometimes to tell hopes and nightmares apart. And just when you think that this is a really detached and cool, if not outright ice-cold record, the warm acoustic guitar of El Matador goes to show that all parallels to other music can describe the unique approach of Grosso Gadgetto & NLC only – well, peripherally.


File under: ambient, drone, electro