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Astral Spirits is proud to present the North American debut of LA TENE with a special cassette version of their new LP "Tardive/Issime". The LP version is being released in Europe by Les Disques Bongo Joe & three:four records. This beautiful cassette version will be out October 14th for Cassette Store Day 2017!
We at Astral Spirits have been huge fans of D'incise & Cyril Bondi's work with diatribes, Magnus Granberg, Mike Majkowski, Cristian Alvear, Michael Pisaro and so much more. We are especially excited to present them here as the trio LA TENE with Alexis Degrenier on amplified Hurdy-Gurdy. Since this is a co-release we decided to forgo the traditional Astral Spirits design and worked with the amazing graphic designer Lionel Catelan to create this beatiful tape version for Cassette Store Day 2017!
more on LA TENE:
La Tène is a three-headed beast spewing a singular energy in which one can detect echoes of traditional music, saturated repetition, ethereal harmonics or imaginary choreographies. All of these coexist in La Tène’s music and are freed from their origins in a unique framework.
The Franco-Swiss trio perform music wherein every influence, however profound, is distilled by patterns becoming themes. The goal is not to break models, but to make their existence solid, concrete, as fragments cleverly carved out of rock so as to be reassembled.
There are no starting points, no ending points, no standard form structures – these all disappear as the senses encounter the first shock waves. Obstacles are erected as
familiarly unknown constructions of bits and pieces remembered as replicated gestures from multiple angles.
La Tène’s goal is not to rearrange or reinvent living music, but rather to groove every furrow again and again until its total exhaustion.
La Tène's previous album 'Vouerca/Fahy', released at the end of April 2016, was rapidly out-of-print after a long series of concerts throughout France and neighboring countries. Thanks to this immediate success, they were invited to play the prestigious Montreux Jazz Festival after appearances at the Sonic Protest Festival in Paris, Ring Ring in Serbia and at the Kilbi Festival in Düdingen.
If this second opus relies on the same method of composition, it employs a decidedly richer timbral palette, combining long heavy descending harmonium sweeps, relentless percussion, and the ever more precise patterns and drones of the hurdy-gurdy.
'Tardive/Issime', something of a mirror to its predecessor, nevertheless reveals a few phantoms in the course of listening, prefiguring a music still to come.
supported by 25 fans who also own “Tardive / Issime”
Urgency, groove, tradition, anger, it's all there in this wonderful bass sound. The pieces reveal different aspects each time I listen to them. Feedback, overtones, shifting patterns, lyrical moments, make this a very contemporary and explorative album, while tone and phrasing at times reaffirm the power of the instrument's tradition. livkon
supported by 25 fans who also own “Tardive / Issime”
Hamid Drake is utterly unique. Anyone who watches him perform will be in awe of the fluidity of his movements and his rhythmic sensibilities. Both can seem supra-human at times. This is not a collaboration which I would have predicted to even take place, let alone be successful. Just goes to show how little confidence I have in my good fortune.
Mako Sica is “free-rock trio” from Chicago whose members seem to have a very wide palette of tones and musical ideas to draw upon.
This is a melange of spacey psychedelic jazz which repays careful listening. It’s immediately likable. But the more you listen the more you see, if I may coin a phrase. The deeper you go the warmer and more satisfying this mixture of influences becomes.
Pick up this limited edition cassette while you can. Richard Hayes