Neural

The Sofa Music of Ingar Zach and Ivar Grydeland is a Norwegian experimental label active since the 2000’s, which over the years has produced some extreme projects with artists from different backgrounds. We remember the free forms by Mural and the contamination between electronics, field recordings and acoustic drums, by the head honcho (the first mentioned) and Miguel Angel Tolosa. We can’t forget the folk-digital collages by Kim Myhr and the meta-instrumental research by Jim Denley, often focused on site-specific projects. To begin with the title, A Pond In My Living Room by Philippe Lauzier evokes two things: the suggestion of a classic science-fiction (a space-time window opening on our daily life) and the inappropriate fantasy of any home-studio producer and sound-maverick (drawing some water from an enchanting pond in his own spaces).The Canadian Philippe Lauzier, from Montreal, Québec, started his research as saxophonist and clarinetist. Later he studied composition and between 2005 and 2010 participating in six collective releases with different ensemble. Eventually in 2013 he made his solo album, Transparence. Now his style evolution seems to be maturing, thanks to some refined and cured mixes, whose tone is solemn and ingenious. The mixes are full of overlaps and improvisations, all driven into a wise score organization. The music background is clear in its use of modern classical echoes and some jazz influences, however the main elements are the very dilated atmospheres, the abstract polyphony and the hypnotic drones. The flux of sounds is continuous and imaginative, the listener is relentlessly captured. The album presents four suites, with a passage from the shadows to the insisting sinuosity of the water, from an enchanting window to a kaleidoscopic garden, in between its own life and some suspended enchantments. When the grace vibes between the cuts, as in this case, all the style fences drop down, the potentialities of the work become infinite and the audio involvement is total.