Feu St-Antoine - L’eau par la soif

Label // Éditions Appærent
Catalogue // APP001
Genre // Electronic
Format // CD
Release Date // 7th August 2020

Pierre Guerineau untethers bandmate and partner Marie Davidson to flash his considerable sound designer chops along noirish sci-fi synth and cinematic-classical vectors, premiering his Feu St-Antoine project as the debut release on the promising new Éditions Appærent label - a stunningly varied and layered masterclass in wordless storytelling.

Notably featuring Alex Zhang Hungtai’s smeared blue sax on board, ‘L’eau par la soif’ is inspired by the outbreak of mass hallucinations in French villages after which the project is named. Guerineau intended the music to “reflect the subjectivity of reality, both as a personal and socio-political construct”, and uses his sensitive but sharp grasp of hardware and software modelling last heard in Essaie Pas to articulate and convey a sweep of melodramatic scenes and feels.

From nods to Jean Michel Jarre in the vocoder and skyward promise of ‘The Appærence’ to the brooding Deckardian atmosphere conjured by Zhang Hungtai’s smeared brass and light pollutant pads of ‘Blue pour papa’, to proper ‘90s industrial sci-fi stylings on ’Spazio Libero’ he holds a fine line of personalised sound design held firmly at the service of gripping story telling. By the time his mix of gallic-KLF pads with Terre Thaemlitz-like keys and sheep bleats come around in ‘Printemps’, it’s fair to say Feu St-Antoine has us baffled and beguiled as the ergot eating villagers of his moniker.

Well worth spending some time with this one.

1. Lisières
2. The Appærence
3. Blues pour papa (feat. Alex Zhang Hungtai)
4. Spazio Libero
5. Non Grata
6.  L’eau par la soif
7. Avale (feat. Nick Rony)
8. Printemps