http://boomkat.com/search?q=Artist%3A%20JACQUES%20BELOEIL&fields[]=artist,track_artists
2010 - The Bath Of Stars (cd sold out)
http://www.entracte.co.uk/project/jacques-beloeil-e102/
Released in a first edition of 50 copies, Jacques Beloeil's
The Bath Of Stars was "Made in London in June 2010
with ideas and sketches recorded on cassettes which were
re-discovered in a shoebox." This is the French composer's
third album for the Entr'acte label, and as a newcomer to
his music I for one will certainly be looking back into his
prior works. This is likely to strike you as a completely
irrational album, structured and sequenced in a way that
defies any semblance of sense; divided into three parts
The Bath Of Stars begins with a sub three-minute study of
crackle and CD-skipping aesthetics, before abruptly
introducing an imposing, forty-six minute second part
ushered in by the dialing sounds of an old mechanical
telephone. Thereafter, strange weightless tones and
booming sub-bass drift around listlessly before ultimately
solidifying into a more consistent and testing wave-scape.
The third and final piece marks another departure, opening
with an epic, almost Popol Vuh-like synth-drone clip that
loops and intensifies until from out of nowhere a comical
and cheap sounding MIDI-powered reggae instrumental
fires up. It sounds a bit preposterous in theory, but the
practice is far weirder and wholly more intriguing. Excellent.
(Boomkat)
2010 - 30 (cd)
http://www.entracte.co.uk/project/beloeilanacker-e86/
The title of this joint venture between Jacques Beloeil and
Michael Anacker refers to the fact that their composition
lasts exactly half an hour, each passing minute signalled
by a synthesized voice counting down from thirty to zero,
at which point the piece ends. Actually it’s a little bit more
interesting and irregular than that: the first intoned ‘thirty’
doesn’t actually appear until 0'30", and as there are in fact
thirty-one spoken numbers (thirty counting down to one,
and then a final zero), you can see that each section lasts
slightly less than a minute. But, anyway, the spoken count-
down serves not only to mark the passing time — it doesn’t
take long to guess that when it reaches zero the piece will
be over — but also to articulate the work’s structure, each
intoned number triggering off a change of process and
texture. Many of these are themselves related to pulse
and the idea of number, or extracts of speeches discussing
numbers, the whole piece then being a kind of meditation
on metre and rhythm. It’s enjoyable and accessible (maybe
too much so in places — can’t say I’m overly fond of the
last five minutes, whose hocketing octaves sound a tad too
early Mute for me), and all the more impressive for having
been recorded live in December last year at Gent’s wonderful
new music venue, De Witte Zaal.
Dan Warburton at Paris Transatlantic —
This is a fascinating 30-minute excursion which takes us
deep into the wastelands and marshes of the human brain.
It’s a series of episodes (some treated field recordings, barely
recognisable) combined with ominous low-key electronic
music, often propelled by a devilishly slow pulsebeat. When a
robotic voice tonelessly utters a number at strategic intervals
(we appear to be counting down from 30 to zero), you’ll be
stopped dead in your tracks like a deer trapped in the head-
lights. A real chiller... in its understated way, this icy piece
feels almost pathological in its determined attempts to under-
mine our shared sense of reality.
Ed Pinsent at The Sound Projector —
I had kind of enjoyed the screwy Beloeil release last year,
a Casio-driven joyride of sorts. Here, we have a disembodied,
synthesised voice counting down from thirty, once a minute,
while things fall apart around ‘her’. Tumbling metal, escaping
steam, other distorted voices, a regular heartbeat thud, etc.
There’s a filmic, dystopic feel at play, inevitable in this count-
down set-up and it works well as far as it goes, though it has
a distancing effect. The steady rhythm becomes more pro-
nounced below ‘10’, the music edging toward the tonal, with
a smidgen of Glass. ‘0’ is, inevitably, reached, the electronic
rhythm having simplified to a resonant blip and the piece
ends.
Brian Olewnick at Just outside
2009 - Bidules 1-9 (lp)
http://www.entracte.co.uk/project/jacques-beloeil-e64/
Remarkable entry from the Entr'acte label - a bi-polar platter
of electro-acoustic composition and Casio keyboard miniatures
with a truly unhinged charm and sense of humour. For those
who are unfamiliar with both the label and the artist; Entr'acte
have been quietly and impressively releasing a stream of esoteric
records from the likes of Sudden Infant, Carlos Giffoni, and
Strategy (among many, many others) for the best part of the
last decade. Jacques Beloeil has previously released a couple
of CD's for them before delivering this LP, apparently 5 years
in the making, yet formed from individual, single-take recordings.
That crazy A-side comes off like a 2.5D version of the recent
Keith Fullerton Whitman album, listing kitchen intensils, TRM pan
and delay effects, a bottle of red wine, and glass and accordion
from James Mannox as the ingredients, stirred to strange perfection
by Rashad Becker at D&M. The flipside is rather more ephemeral
yet easier to grasp. Nine brief, diverse configurations of jolly Casio
keyboard composition, often repetitive, but keeping our attention
fixed with unpredictable melodic swerves and a distinctly unique
sense of arrangement. Perhaps imagine a dadaist conversation
between two slighty squiffy Sk1s in a cute Parisian bistro and you'll
have some idea of what to expect. Mental, highly recommended
album for the real diggers among you.
(Boomkat)