Sébastien Schuller is a French artist, classically trained percussionist, who became an accomplished and eclectic multi-instrumentalist over the years, composing and interpreting his own work. He thrives on enhancing sounds of acoustic and natural resonance with touches of electronica. Happiness is his first full-length album released in 2005; he recently released his second album "Evenfall". Fantastic album! Highly recommended!
Pascal Comelade, a French-Catalan minimalist, was born in Montpellier, France. After living for several years in Barcelona, he made his first album, Fluences, influenced by electronic music and by the group Heldon. Subsequently, his music has become more acoustic and is characterised by the sounds of toy instruments, used as solo-instruments and as an integral part of the sound of his group, the Bel Canto Orquestra. He has collaborated with many singers and musicians from diverse genres of music including Robert Wyatt, Dani, Faust, Christophe Miossec, Toti Soler, Jac Berrocal and PJ Harvey. I strongly recommend all his albums; if you like the music of Yann Tiersen, you will love it! This is one of his most recent releases! Enjoy!
Schéol is a French band formed in 2002. Their music is instrumental and combines elements from cold wave, trip-hop and electronica. This is their second album released in 2006 and it's really fantastic. Highly recommended!
Alcest is a French band created by Neige (also in Amesoeurs, Peste Noire and Forgotten Woods) in early 2000. He began writing songs on his own but a few months afterwards Argoth (bass) and Famine from Peste Noire (lead guitar) joined him and his solo project became a real band. Beginning as a raw black metal, Alcest later became a vessel for Neige's "memories of another world" as the band evolved into his solo-project. His music now draws more comparison to other genres such as shoegaze and post-rock. This is his debut full-length album, released in 2007. Really beautiful music!
Les Fragments de la nuit is a French band created in 2005 by Michel Villar (piano) and Ombeline Chardes (violin), score composers for film. In order to play their pieces on stage, they decided to set up a quintet made up of three violins, a cello and a piano. Their music, ranging from tragic to epic and atmospheric was greeted by audiences with unexpected enthusiasm. Some see in it the influence of repetitive music composers such as Philip Glass or Steve Reich, others the melancholic emotion found in the works of Arvö Part or Canadians Godspeed You! Black Emperor. They say: «Our music is poetry in which words are notes, a memory in which images are dreams». Beautiful music!
Thee, Stranded Horse is Yann Tambour from Normandy, France, a really gifted young artist. He released two beautiful, electronic albums as Encre; I've presented one Encre album a while ago. Here, he plays nylon-strung acoustic guitar and the kora, a 21-string instrument originated in West-Africa. The result is a top class, modern folk album that everyone must have! Excellent!
