A review of Ethers by Steve Dewhurst (Decoder magazine) > Emmanuel Mieville is, for my money, one of the best sound sculptors currently working, and yet his music seems to be consistently overlooked. Since Baskaru released the fantastic Four Wanderings in Tropical Lands in 2011, I’ve made it a personal mission to try and obtain everything I can by the Parisian — I hold no other artist working in this realm in quite such high esteem, with the possible exception of the far more prolific (and consequently far more erratic) Francisco López. Mieville takes his time and it shows; I have yet to hear a piece of his work I have found less than exquisite, and Ethers is no exception to the rule. Initially the record sounds like Mieville’s most synthetic work to date: the air is filled with glassy, high-pitched electronic drones and recognisable sound sources are hard to come by. But given time subtle hints of life begin to emerge — the whining of a power drill, the beat of stiletto heels pacing across a polished floor, the cold spatter of rain on already sodden ground. Mieville’s stated aim has been to “lower drone music from the skies,” and while Ethers goes about achieving that goal somewhat literally, it remains a powerfully engrossing addition to his gradually expanding catalogue.

paru le 11 mars 2017