pierre bastien: machinations

Pierre Bastien is a French composer and multi-instrumentalist (releasing music since the mid-1980s) who works with his own unique, self-built Meccano orchestra. This is far too simply put though: the musicians can be paperclips, insects, model birds, tubes, or an old tone-arm, perhaps. One perspective would be that he achieves his music via the construction of machines. Another perspective is that it's the other way around. Having a profound love of old jazz and traditional world music, he is also a professional bass player and notable for sometimes picking up a trumpet or horn. Nowadays, on YouTube, you might find a robotic MIDI controllable guitar that can outplay any human, or a computer that will endlessly compose drum and bass and who knows what the future holds there. But Pierre Bastien has been evolving his own aims/methods/results/conclusions since he was a young boy and you will hear that his album is full of that natural charm, peace, and purity. After decades of exploration and experimentation, the music has achieved considerable sophistication. Pierre has already released two acclaimed albums with Rephlex; this one is accompanied by a bonus DVD, and, although much of the source footage for that is lower resolution, one can get much closer to the full experience and enjoyment of his concerts and installations all over the world. Grandparents and grandkids and all in between will get something from this release. A chance to see and hear the machines in action, up close. As usual, all the audio track titles are palindromes, to echo some movements of the instruments.