Frans de Waard
“Courrière”
excerpt 1
excerpt 2
::: INTRODUCTORY WORDS :::
In 2005, I went to the Ardennes in Belgium with a group of friends.
They’d planned on a day of canoeing.
I’m too cowardly to even get into one, but I really wanted to record the sound of a trip down a roiling river from inside a canoe.
So I asked my friends, who took my device and recorded the sound material l used in this piece of music.
– Frans de Waard (avril 2015)
::: PRESS RELEASE :::
About 30 years into the “experimental” music scene, Frans de Waard (from the city of Nijmegen, in The Netherlands) epitomizes almost on his own
a certain ideal of “alternative” culture. Cornerstone of legendary STAALPLAAT (shop/distro/label), he’s besides behind the iconic and still operating online mag VITAL WEEKLY, where he has never been stingy of informing reviews related to thousands of titles of underground music.
Impossible also not to mention his activities at Extrapool, a production house versed into sound, art and print where he did lectures and workshops…
His name can be found stamped onto a host of musical projects, both collaborative : Kapotte Muziek, Goem, Beequeen, Modelbau, The Tobacconists…and solo : Freiband, Shifts, or simply Frans de Waard…and this is not counting, as a lover of improvisation, his sets with among others : Howard Stelzer, Roel Meelkop, Giuseppe Ielasi, Andrew liles…
Needless to say he made as well many performances throughout Europe, but also in USA, Canada, Japan & Russia…
Last but not least, he’s the curator of Korm Plastics, Bake Records, and My Own Little Label, and co-founded Plinkity Plonk and Audio.nl…
Being exhaustive about the man, is clearly “mission impossible”…
“Courrière” is the soundtrack of a transcended phobia…
Evaporating voices heard from within,
quiverings on the liquid surface,
where we follow the course of dead stars…
A lengthy remorseless drift
to transpose the world…
Small in-depth erosions, oozing insides,
along which we glide in awe…
Sounds decay and meander,
sowing fear and dim light…
Our days are torn,
mirroring a subterranean sea…
“Courrière” offers no shelter,
just a U-turn…
::: TRACKS :::
Courrière
::: DURATION :::
43:30
::: FORMAT :::
CD ltd to 200 copies
all copies come with an additional art card on 300 gr satin paper
::: REVIEWS :::
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Het is niet eenvoudig de muzikale activiteiten van Frans de Waard onder één noemer te brengen. er zit vaak een aspect van ruis in, van noise, gevonden geluiden. Lo-fi is ook één van de trefwoorden die hem wel passen. De Nijmegaar is vooral actief in samenwerkingen met anderen, zoals Jos Smolders, Roel Meelkop en Radboud Mens. Daarnaast heeft hij diverse soloprojecten. Voor elke hoedanigheid waarin hij optreedt, alleen of met anderen, heeft hij wel een naam. De lijst is lang, en er komen geregeld namen bij. Onder zijn eigen naam heeft hij “Courrière” uitgebracht, gebaseerd op opnamen die vrienden van hem maakten tijdens een uitstapje met een kano in de Belgische Ardennen. Van die bron is weinig te herkennen. De Waard heeft er kennelijk nogal wat filters en andersoortige elektrische circuits op losgelaten, hetgeen heeft geleid tot een stream of consciousness van tonale en gruizige, brokkelende ruisklanken, die geen moment doen denken aan wildwater of vredig peddelen. Je krijgt eerder de indruk dat allerlei elektromagnetische storingen uit de atmosfeer je knaar bombarderen, tot het geluid uiteenvalt en er wat spettertjes overblijven die neerregenen op een bastoon van diep onder de grond. Op dat moment ben je halverwege de drie kwartier die dit werk in beslag neemt. in het genre van kraakmuziek staat hij zijn mannetje, zoveel is duidelijk.
rvp
Gonzo Circus
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I was already fantasizing about a sequence of archetypal adjectives of supposed usefulness to represent the exudations contained by Courrière before looking at De Waard’s notes explaining the album’s primary element (check the label’s link just above). What remains to be told is that the music maintains the traits of “amplified steaminess” in the slo-mo scenes succeeding in 43+ minutes (also characterized by the emergence of cold glares and metallic flavors). We’re basically dealing with grey-tinged, dilated soundscaping defined by an essential rarefaction of dynamic spikes, in which slowly gravitating accumulations of filtered frequencies pad the environment, with rare traces of sunlight. The level of induced sleepiness is superior to that of active suspension; but when the record’s over, the sudden absence of the gaseous substance we were being silently intoxicated by becomes conspicuous. Ultimately, this is one of those releases barely identifiable among hundreds of similar ones. Yet, for some reason, it works quite fine until it lasts. And not for a moment I was reminded of a kayak propelled by the rapids.
Massimo Ricci
Touching Extremes
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Considering the fact that you are currently reading Vital Weekly, odds are that Frans de Waard does not require any introduction at all, so I gladly leave it there – trusting that you are well-capable of finding the extensive account of the man’s immense oeuvre on discogs yourself, if necessary.
This album is a commissioned work for Mystery Sea; a series that requests artists to draw inspiration from the archetypical notion of water. This can lie for instance in the abyssal fear of the ocean – a realization I find very inspirational myself – but also more positive interpretations, like the sense of ‘flow’, are something that fits with said objective.
This led De Waard to making field recordings during a canoe trip in the Belgian Ardennes, about which he recounts that he himself was too apprehensive to actually participate. The recordings form the basis of this album.
Apart from some notable changes in the overall dynamics, Courrière is an smooth work, tension-wise. There is a potent high+low end thrust of noise slowly commencing approximately 17 minutes in and another brusque layer suddenly cropping up at the end, but even these have a certain moderation to them. At no point does the album become too challenging, nor do the parts in which the pressure or tension are somewhat increased last too long, which I felt was a pleasant feature of the composition – it’s very well-tempered. If comparisons need to be drawn, particular aspects of the album – the use of certain timbres and the way sounds extend and an imminent noumenal tension reminded me of the work of Thomas Köner and Sleep Research Facility. Will play this one again !
Peter Johan Nijland
Vital Weekly
Mystery Sea 