After Snowfalls
Paris, Île-de-France, France | INDIE
Music
Press
Written by Sebastian Huhn
Thursday, 04 June 2009
AFTER SNOEFALLS is the project of French native Louis A who’s a classically-trained artist also working as an engineer with the duo AIR since 2008. His project was initiated in 2004 and released one album with ‘Born Dead Driver’ in 2007 and now puts his second lot into the fire with ‘Monsters’.
It has occurred tome that it’s particularly this species of trained musicians who, if founding an own project, often push the envelope of what most people deem as normal music. Some even go beyond and Louis A. makes no exception for that matter. The opener ‘The Damp Heap’ begins with an electronic beat like a racing pulse intertwined with subtle percussion, distortion and a lot of parasitic frequency manipulation. In the midst of chaos now there’s a voice popping up, piercingly screaming words you can hardly understand since it’s buried under a pile of effects. While the rhythm section of this one has been almost bursting with complexity the one ‘Big Collection’ has sounds rather simplistic if you compare them. But also here Louis is shooting off one bullet of electronic gadgetry after the other and you’ll be getting problems to decide where to listen first. Vocals on the track are markedly melodic and for the rock aficionados there’s a distorted wall coming your way soon but even though it sounds like it it’s not a guitar it’s a processed violin.
‘Promethee’ is creeping forward and utilizing deep bass shockwaves later that will have your subwoofer destroyed when turning the volume too high, I suppose. ‘My Time’ firstly just kicks it off with an instrumental passages showing an eagerness to experiment but being nothing against what happens when the beat stops and a desperate voice cries out into the night being surrounded by the peculiar sound textures of the distorted violin which is given an even more rocking attitude than before when the beat starts over again. On ‘Shit’ we’re dealing with a harsher and more extreme form of an industrial track that is demanding a great deal of your ears as it overruns it with noises and shredded fragments.
The musical skills of Louis are beyond question, but due to its experimental and challenging nature ‘Monsters’ is most likely to appeal to a special audience only.
Link: http://www.reflectionsofdarkness.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5062&Itemid=44 - REFLEXIONS OF DARKNESS
extract:
"Monsters a la rage! Celle d'une musique qui se cogne aux barreaux de sa cage pour tenter d'en sortir"
(translation)
"Monsters is raging! Like music banging into its cage's bars and trying to get out"
Magazine: http://www.d-side.org/ - D-Side Magazine
Discography
09: Monsters
07: Born Dead Driver
Photos
Bio
After Snowfalls is strongly inspired by Nine Inch Nails, but also by the musical world of Throbbing Gristle, Zappa, or even Suicide.
But the influences also include some modern classical composers, in particular Ligeti, Varese and their mixed tones, Xenakis and his resonant clouds or Romitelli and his distorsions, and also the cinema, in particular Z series.
At the beginning of the creative process, an action, an atmosphere are imagined to serve as guideline for composition and interpretation. From Georges Romero to Tarantino, by way of Murnau, Polanski or Tobe Hooper, the influences of the cinema are felt strongly in his productions. In a spirit of self derision characterising the Z series cinema, After Snowfallss music becomes a catharsis where frustration, perversion, pain, but also hope and search for redemption explode.
// Louis ARLETTE creator of AFTER SNOWFALLS
At 22, Louis A. obtained a bachelor degree from university Paris VIII St Denis in Computer Aided Composition. His final musical project was selected for a public concert at Cervantes Institute in May 2007. Oriented toward sound and electro-acoustic research, in 2008 Louis A. is furthering his studies at the SAE Institute sound engineering school. Hes been working with the mythical duet AIR as a sound technician since 2008.
While continuing to practice classical violin (superior level of Department Conservatorium, member of the professional orchestra Naïri), Louis A. is developing new sound experiences with the electric violin. He uses this instrument in a non-classical way, like a guitar, with distorted saturated sounds and Wah effects etc He participates in numerous concerts playing classical and electric violin and also as sound engineer.
To bring his research one step further, in 2005 he started the studio Le Bruit Blanc where he records many groups (Cat Power, La Phaze
) and in particular his own : After Snowfalls, created in 2004. This group is the Project of Louis A., composer interpreter with the participation of artists in a directed improvisation.
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