LE CHAMP DES LARMES

The Champ des Larmes is very cold. That's my impression. It's, in a certain sense, the most extreme record that I have. Many older Art Zoyd records create a pretty straightforward emotional response in me, usually, as one could expect, of a rather dark nature, but Champ des Larmes is like ice mountains in the distance. (Ok, I admit, that's some kind of emotional response, too.) Certainly this has to do with the fact that this is really, really experimental and sound-oriented and there are hardly any conventional song elements in it. Even anything that could be described as rhythm (and be it noise rhythm) is very rare, let alone identifiable notes or even harmonics. As opposed to other Art Zoyd works, Champ des Larmes is smooth in the sense that there are no sharp contrasts and development is slow. There is variety in sounds and some may be perceived as somewhat noisy, but still even these are somewhat muted. Nothing is harsh, neither is anything friendly or warm. I generally like field recordings, sound experiments etc., so I can find much that is fascinating on this album, but still, it's difficult to get into and I always fall back to this impression of coldness and distance. Which itself is fascinating in that the impression that the album creates is really unique. I couldn't connect to it in the beginning and was initially rather disappointed with it (I like most of Art Zoyd quite a lot and I don't usually need time to get into their mood) so was expecting a similar response here but instead - ice mountains in the distance. I've come back to this album more often than I initially believed, though, and learned to appreciate it in its uniqueness.

As this is a quite extreme experience, the center 3 stars rating seems quite strange, but the thing is, it has to be at least 3 for the uniqueness and fascination but cannot be more because still there is this feeling that I cannot quite connect with it and in any case my recommendation can only be: try out at your own risk.