Melodium - Anaemia

by Maarten Schiethart

published: 17 / 11 / 2004

Label: Audio Dregs
Format: CD

Wonderful and electic new album from Melodium, the moniker for former conservatory pianist Laurent Girard, which can be found "at the crossroads of piano magic and glitsch harmony"

Review

I'm not so sure that Laurent Girard went as far as suffering for his art since this album doesn't show any deficiencies in melody. Maybe it's Girard's conservatory degree as a pianist that lead him to name this set of compositions 'Anaemia'. Melodium is at the crossroads of piano magic and glitsch harmony. But as he defies to be pigeon-holed, and as I would expect his work is too alien for most of his former students, this body of work is rather solid and groovy! Rather than break new ground, Melodium is a pianist for today with his digital orchestra. Squelching sounds coming from the keyboards substitute for the horn section, the strings take on the melodies while Girard's superb piano play directs the compositions. Traditional by heart, Melodium is a conductor lost without his symphony orchestra. 'Anaemia' progresses from subdued excitement in 'Lopak Bis' to the dubby elektro acoustics of sound sketches like 'Pseudo Anomali'. The intermezzos reshuffle the seemingly false starts to pave the way for outrightly magnificent compositions. Classical by nature, Melodium succeeds in building layers and ,as distorted the mechanics sound at times, there is no juxtaposition. The layers read exactly the same as the composition does. 'Anaemia' instead reaches a beautiful spleen like momentum in 'Composé Organique Volatil II' which is the grand finale to a wonderful album.

Track Listing:-

1 Reality Is Decaying
2 Iopak Bis
3 Floating Blood
4 Industrial Reminiscence I
5 Chan's Escape
6 Pseudo Anomali
7 Industrial Reminiscence II
8 Residual Song
9 Be Away
10 Platitudes & Cloportation
11 Felt Melt (Primitive Version)
12 Composé Organique Volatil II