noli me legere - to maurice blanchot | cd | sirr018


"excellent maurice blanchot dedicated compilation"
_Framework, resonance.fm

French philosopher and author {Maurice Blanchot} died on February 20, 2003at the age of 95. His unclassifiable writings have gained him a cult following, especially in experimental music circles, even moreso in such circles where stripping down the musical discourse is felt like a necessity. Enters this collaborative project spearheaded by the fine Portuguese label Sirr.
Noli me legere culls seven works from as many artists, some of the most respected names in the fields of lowercase and microsound (if these labels still mean something). One can see this album as a tribute to Blanchot, a metaphorical reflection on his work taken as a whole, or simply a very seductive introduction to the quieter side of sound art. Brandon Labelle's “The One Who is Standing Close to Me” and Julien Ottavi’s “Rassarcissment” are the only slightly unsatisfying pieces -- the first one because it sticks too close to its own rules, the second because of its starkness. Everything else is pure delight, from minimalist gestures toengrossing sound collages. With “I” Christof Migone revisits the human body in a way similar to his previous project Crackers, except that this time around the sole sound source in a man manipulating his eyes: stretched eyelids, squished eyeballs, whistling tear ducts and all. Slightly disgusting at first, the piece evolves into an orgiastic fountain of sounds as Migone transforms the raw materials into something you will have to hear to believe. Paulo Raposo's “The One Who is Standing Apart from Me”} and Stephen Vitiello’s “Essential Perversions” offer two takes on rearranged field recordings. The former includes instrumental passages and is much more dreamy and evocative than the latter, witty and almost satirical. In “Thomas Sat Down and Looked at the Sea” Steve Roden continues to explore the possibilities of minimal repetitive melodies he previously mapped on his solo CD for Sirr, "Speak No More About the Leaves". Toshiya Tsunoda’s contribution offers another of his auditory perception oddities, “Cicada Chorus Resonating a Bottle Inside a Bottle” which is exactly what it says.
This is an essential collection for the aficionado and the newcomer alike.
_François Couture, All Music Guide

A release that showcases some the developing talents of the Sirr label. Most of the work presented here are excellent examples of how composers are finally beginning to develop very different methods of composition without relying on the endless effects and processes that a computer can render on sounds. A label proud to wear its literary pretensions on its sleeve that encourages the listener to investigate the work of Maurice Blanchot without creating any more myths about him. An exercise in sparseness, sensitivity and contemplation than honours Maurice Blanchot's life and work, whoever he was.
_Mark Mclaren, www.furthernoise.org

After a compilation album Sul a while back dedicated to reclusive filmmaker Chris Marker, Sirr's Paulo Raposo – a zillion apologies for misspelling his name Paolo on numerous occasions – has chosen another enigmatic and mysterious Frenchman as a point of reference for a collaborative project. Maurice Blanchot (1907 – 2003) was, along with his close friends Emmanuel Levinas, Georges Bataille, René Char and Robert Antelme, one of the most enigmatic and influential figures in modern French writing. His output includes both fiction, notably L'arrêt de mort [Death Sentence] (1948), Celui qui ne m'accompagnait pas [The One Who Was Standing Apart From Me] (1953) and Le dernier homme [The Last Man] (1957) and criticism: Lautréaumont et Sade (1949), and L'espace littéraire [The Space of Literature] (1955) Le pas au-delà [The Step Not Beyond] (1973) and L'Ecriture du désastre [The Writing of Disaster] (1980). “I refuse all the past and accept nothing of the present” he wrote in 1958 on the occasion of the creation of the anti-Gaullist publication Le 14 juillet. He also probably penned the "Déclaration sur le droit à l'insoumission dans la guerre d'Algérie", a public statement of support for those fighting French colonial power in Algeria. Though he surfaced briefly to support the 'Comité d'action étudiants-écrivains' during the événements of 1968, Blanchot remained famous for his reclusiveness. A well-known photograph of him standing next to a car outside a supermarket is cause of widespread interest and rumour. "Tall, thin and cadaverous in appearance," he was often plagued by ill health, though he died at the ripe old age of 96.
Whether the disembodied words spoken by Brandon Labelle and Maria Nilsson come from Celui qui ne m'accompagnait pas or not isn't stated, though the title of their piece "the one who is standing close to me" is a clear reference to the Blanchot work. Unlike much of Labelle's music, in which the concept is often more exciting than its purely audio realisation, this is an instantly attractive piece whose introvert close-miked texts recall the intimacy of Robert Ashley. There's presumably some perfectly rational explanation for the cheeping birdsong too, but by the time you've figured out what Labelle and Nilsson are saying, the disc has moved on. Quebec's Christof Migone's "I" originates in an idea so simple you've probably never considered it: if we can look at an ear, why can't we hear an eye? Migone's piece is "composed entirely of sounds produced by the eyes of Alex Thibodeau as manipulated by himself. Eyelids were stretched, eyeballs jostled and squished, tear ducts made to whistle." Sounds like it must have pretty goddamn painful for Monsieur Thibodeau if you ask me, but fortunately the piece sounds just fine, though knowing in advance where its sound material came from does provoke the Matmos Effect (cf. their overhyped sampling of surgical operations): yeurkk. If Raposo's own "the one who is standing apart from me" (reference clear this time) is a chilly, clanging soundscape that consciously blurs the distinction between inside and outside, Stephen Vitiello's "essential perversions" is resolutely the latter, and seems to have been sourced in recordings of French street protests – perhaps a homage to Blanchot's participation – complete with car horns, whistles and chants, drenched in reverb. The austere drone of Julien Ottavi's "rassarcissment" is followed by Steve Roden's "thomas sat down and looked at the sea", another one of the California-based sound artist's extraordinarily introspective offerings – you almost feel listening is a kind of intrusion – featuring treatments of his voice and guitar, and the album closes with Toshiya Tsunoda's "cicada chorus resonating a bottle inside of a bottle", most definitely not a quotation from Blanchot. One wonders what possible connection there might be between Tsunoda's extremely noisy crickets and the painfully shy writer, but like the other six pieces on the album, it'll have you coming back for more.
—DWarburton, ParisTransatlantic

Comme on l’a écrit dans la presse à son décès en 2003, l’écrivain et critique philosophique Maurice Blanchot « guillotine le Moi, dissout les personnages, abolit le temps perdu ». C’est ce que le label portugais Sirr a voulu appuyer en proposant cet hommage sonore. Comme nombre de ses contemporains désolés, Blanchot vivait à l’écart des cercles, reclus et invisible, comme un suicidé de la société désireux de survivre à travers la pensée et l’écriture. « L’art est contestation infinie » disait Maurice Blanchot, c’est pourquoi les milieux underground semblent les plus aptes à la révérence. Comme Blanchot ré-interrogeait sur le rapport entre le lecteur et l’auteur, les artistes sonores ici conviés sont de ceux qui interrogent sur l’attitude d’écoute. Chacun s’est inspiré d’un texte de l’écrivain. On oubliera l’anecdotique apparition de Julien Ottavi, goutte-à-goutte bluffeur (celui d’une chasse ?). Plus fin, c’est à un travail de voix que s'attache Brandon Labelle qui a convoqué Maria Nilsson pour une lecture cut-up. Ce duo sensuel accompagné de frottements électroacoustiques dissonants procure un juste équilibre de stress et de sérénité. Avant le drone ensevelissant de Paulo Raposo, c’est la musique concrète liquéfiée de Christof Migone qui joue avec le silence, avec le pouls désarçonné. Sa pièce composée à partir de sons d’yeux triturés provoque la belle confusion des sens. Paulo Raposo rend hommage à son ombre dans une attente crépusculaire où les instruments à cordes s’invitent. C’est Stephen Vitiello qui rend l’hommage le plus inédit, avec sa pièce concrète composée d’enregistrements de manifestations. En véritable électroacousticien, les sons qu’il assemble identifient le lieu et l’espace du témoignage. C’est une touche de poésie spontanée. La poésie, autre qualité de Blanchot, est aussi celle de Steve Roden. Toujours avec sa voix, cette fois aidée d’une guitare, il déconstruit, rassemble, ajoute les coupures, ferait presque une pop lowercase, recherche l’harmonique exiguë. Après ces caresses moirées, la sécheresse des impacts noise de Toshiya Tsunoda surprend. Hors ce final résonant et métallique, Noli me legere ressemble à un orchestre de la sensualité, du silence et des sons délicats mais déterminés. Cet hommage est bien le moins envers Blanchot, lui-même incarnation de la discrétion activiste, modeste et sans concessions.
Jé.L., Fear Drop Magazine

This is the second compilation by Sirr-ecords, dedicated to someone. The first one was 'Sul - Dedicated to Chris Marker', a french director. Here the dedication goes out to Maurice Blanchot (1907-2003) a French writer, about whom nothing much is known since he didn't give interviews, lectures or even photo's. It's hard for me to tell what his writings are about, since I didn't read any of it. The title 'Noli Me Legere' means 'Do Not Read Me' and that 'problematizes the border between writer and reader, and between writing and reading, and beyond its enigmatical interdiction, it forces one to take a hermeneutic shift and abandon all traditional exegesis'. Seven different musicians pay hommage this writer and his writings. One would assume a lot of spoken word on this disc, but that's not the case. Only in the Brandon Labelle/Maria Nilsson piece there is spoken word (Stephen Vitiello uses field recordings of a demonstration). Other pieces have faint typewriter sounds or use the eyes (!) as source material (Christof Migone's beautiful perceptive piece). Steve Roden's piece is the most musical one, using a guitar and humming and Toshiya Tsunoda recorded a cicada chorus resonating a bottle inside a bottle. A lot of these pieces deal with how things are perceived, but each from a radical different point of view. This varied disc makes it altogether interesting, also if Maurice Blanchot doesn't belong to your daily literature.
__FdWaard, Vital Weekly


This CD features music by composers such as Brandon LaBelle, Steve Roden, Stephan Vitiello and Toshiya Tsunoda (who released material though Hapna). Names one comes across more often in the experimental scene.
The music is in general very low-key, ranging from the dreamy dark ambient atmospheres with metal scraping by member of BinauralMedia association Paulo Raposo to the French street atmospheres by Stephan Vitiello. Montreal-based Christof Migone (who released for instance Escape songs, Squintfuckerpress, 2004.) and Nantes-based sound artist percussionnist and founder of l'association de musique expérimentale Apo 33 Julien Ottavi contribute a track in which metallic sound snippets play a major role. Stephen Vitiello made use of sounds produced by the eyes of Alex Thibodeau.
Sirr ecords selected a very interesting collection of experimental pieces by several international artists who provided lovely contributions.
__Phosphor