Roomtones by Fant^ms (Pali Meursault, Frédéric Nogray, Lee Patterson)

Born during the summer of 2014 in Grenoble, FANT^MS gets together three musicians who share a common taste for field recordings, but who have left their microphones for experimenting with acoustic, mechanical, electrical and electronic phenomena. Their choice of instrumentation appropriates discarded objects of the industrial realm: Frédéric Nogray's ‘singing bowls’ are originally industrial crucibles; using contacts-microphones, Lee Patterson amplifies sounds of chemical reactions, vibrating springs and motors; Pali Meursault captures the electromagnetic activity of failing neon lights and local electrical interferences.

The trio's research was developed during rare but intense moments of music, during which the musicians have been inhabiting their own installation. After Le Train Fantôme (Grenoble, 2014) and Les Instants Chavirés (Paris, 2015), the object of the 10-day residency at QO-2, in Brussels in December of 2017, was to gather material for a future album. Three more years have been necessary to turn the impulse of the original improvisations into Roomtones, first record by FANT^MS.

The double-album makes use of two specific moments from the Brussels’ recordings: one session led to the short pieces that compose the LP, a moment of musical ‘high’, during which the music started to really inhabit the space ; and the two tracks of the CD exploit the digital medium with two duets mixed by the remaining third, exploring the minimalist and maximalist limits of the trio’s music, at the edge of silence and saturation.

Beside being a creator of electronic, field recording and electro-acoustic musics, Frédéric Nogray adopted an instrumental approach to his practice with crystal singing bowls.

Créateur de musiques électroniques, électro-acoustiques et à base de field recordings, Frédéric Nogray adopte une approche plus instrumentale de la pratique de la musique avec les bols chantants en cristal.

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