Vital Weekly – Farol
Vital Weekly, 2020

Still quite young, this French composer, of whom I reviewed a couple of works before (see Vital Weekly 953 and 1001) and of whom I don't know much else.
He creates music, installations, photography and film work; that's what I learned from his website. His previous releases were released by the French Kaon label, but this one is on Unfathomless, known for their work with field recordings and in this case, it is all about the 25th April Bridge in Lisbon. I am not sure how Jehanne works, what kind of technology is at his disposal but my best guess would be that following the recording 'in the field', there follows an extended time on the computer for further transformation of the material. That is, of course, if Jehanne is using the strangest angles and microphone technology to tape his sounds and that all the transformation takes place in the actual process of laying the sounds on the recorder. Still, there is a moment in which these recordings are collaged together as that is something that I'm certain of that happens. The level of processing isn't that far off what could also be a natural recording; keeping it close to the original but with a whim of strangeness attached to it. In the forty-five minutes of this piece Jehanne shifts between with great care between all the different approaches to the sounds. From relative quietness to something that is sonically more charged, albeit it never becomes too noisy. It is all done with some keen ear for pacing; a fine flow of sounds happens and it tells a story, even when that is an abstract one. It is about men, nature and architecture; about taping events from a place, empty surroundings but also cars passing and a herd of football fans crossing the bridge and chanting. At least that's what I believe to hear. It is good, it's solid and perhaps somewhat unsurprising also; something radically new doesn't happen. That may not always be necessary of course.