Un Jour by Atone (CD EP)

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http://www.angryape.com
‘Un Jour’ is the latest release from France’s gorgeous Autres Directions In Music imprint. An offshoot from the popular online music magazine and distributor of occassional, but always free, music releases. It joins past EP’s from the likes of post-rock group Dirge, and electronic offerings from Dudley and Melodium (Static Caravan).
Initially intended for a stage environment, the five tracks were designed to be performed by sequencers, synths, drum-boxes and a melodica, although original ambitions were not successful. Moving away from live performances, the five tracks were then reworked for this EP, aimed at a more home-based listening ethos.
‘Un Jour’ is a revisitation of melodic rhythms and minimalist digital sounds, as favoured by the likes of Expanding Records and Static Caravan. It’s reminiscent in parts, to the early toy-like Minotaur Shock EP’s, the chilled electronica of say, Marcia Blane and more recently, the excellent Stendec compilation.
Although comparisons may come relatively easy, Atone displays enough character of his own, to distance himself from a loose tag of ‘yet another Isan soundalike’. ‘Un Jour’ won’t change the electronic music world forever, nor will it place Atone in the big league of recording artists. But for now, it’s a sublime collection of thoughtful tracks, which are both emotional and playful.

http://www.monochrom.at/cracked
It is Sunday, again. Not a day like every other day, and this one in more than one respect. “un jour” by Atone soothes my mind while keeping up the level of nervousness necessary to make it through. Offering both comforting sounds and unsettling elements in the intricate mix of electronic devices (computers, keyboards, drumboxes) and traditional elements (harmonicas, samples) I seem unable to focus on just one of the elements as I am easily able to with other music. On “un jour” the seemingly unobtrusive music will grab you from behind, take your subconscious backdoor and make itself heard in all its glorious diversity. Another “moulinette”, another direction in music. This label keeps on surprising me with the diversity as well as with the quality of the music they release. Every endeavour, be it artistical or economical, has that point of “tipping over”, where it either turns into being well-known and profitable or sinks into the black forge of anonymity. In between is the grey area, in which people like Stephane struggle to keep their idea alive and to draw it into the direction, they once figured they’d like it to go. Finally, I hope, his work is starting to pay off – not in material terms, but in terms of artistical satisfaction, networks of likeminded people, and, in a way, having made a name for himself. This is the sixth release on autres directions in music, and the one that should finally prove that this label is more than just a hobby or a swell idea to work on after the dayjob. So, when all respects have been paid to this unique label, let’s get on to the music. While I am sitting here, drinking water and eating sugar, trying to disregard the throbbing pain in the palm of my right hand, where I have inflicted an open wound of about 2cm radius, while working heavy machinery, Atone is throbbing away around my head filling everything with a slightly deconstructed music concrete. Five tracks of keyboards, sequencers, drumboxes and harmonicas mixed into tracks that prod along their self-reflective rhythms, I start to wonder what it all means. The atmosphere is one of relaxed uneasiness, sounds start to rise from the mix and cling to the back of my brain, sometimes comforting my, other times – e.g. the high-pitched noises during “c’est fini” – unsettling me. Everything adds to the mix and the mix itself is the floodgate to let the waters drain. Less dangerous than Harpages but more exhausting than Dirge, these soundscapes do take their toll on the listener, while also offering relief. The piano-chords during the opening of the last track “qobac sine” are comforting, though subsequently muted and muffled and drenched with more overdriven guitar-sounds. That track especially manages to wander between the world of the peaceful and the eerie. Well, to some the quiet moments before a heavy rainstorm breaks lose are frightening while others enjoy exactly those moments, when the rising electricity in the air is almost smellable. Staying with that track, it is also the perfect example of the way Atone moves within its tracks, starting at one point, and then adding layer upon layer, covering some parts of the music completely, while shoving other into the foreground, slowly but persistently. Until what has started off as a slow, melancholic but relaxing piano-piece, made to enjoy, turns into a big heap of music concrete, with layers and layers of keyboard-sounds. Other tracks use different sounds, from glass chimes to digital noisery, to whatever seems close at hand. The washes of white noise mixed into interferences at the beginning of the first track should be mentioned. The whole magic tour only takes close to 25 minutes, but easily lasts for a day, when played right, i.e. on repeat. At first glance, this record might seem like a small affair, just an EP with a bunch of electronica instrumentals, not a lot like a lot of other stuff, but that is a misconception, as you will realise for yourself. When the time and mind is right, you won’t be able to let go. You’ll have to wait for help to rip you off this music. Beautiful and dangerous. And my hand still hurting. But I do believe that somewhere within these delicate textures, these finely woven structures I can find healing.

http://www.electronicdesert.com
Un Jour EP is the name of Moulin 006 and that would be the sixth release on Adim. Atone delivers 5 tracks of high-quality electronic music stretching from dreamesque soundscapes to rhythmic complexity. The EP opens up with “Partir” with a sparkling melody reminiscent of the rising sun a beautiful summer’s day just after you’ve opened your eyes, for a new day and a new start. It is followed by the harmonica-filled “Two Marimbas” the hesitant melody in combination with the gentlest beats is trotting forward in a steady pace. “Balneaire” sets a calmer ambiance and would be the lazy afternoon in extreme heat and all blue skies. Very nice choices of sounds in this beatless track. “C’est Fini” has an understated bassline and some crisp beats, the sprinkled melody works beautifully as it is contrasted with the harsher sounds of the composition. Quite excellent. The EP is closed by the fifth and last song “Qobac Sine”. An atmospheric piece with heartbreaking melancholic sounds suspended mid-air in this the sonic picture of nightfall. To sum up it’s another nice EP from those Adim (Autres Directions In Music) people!
Bell 03

http://www.losingtoday.com
Another label well worth your time and investigation is the French based Internet resource Autres Directions in Music. All releases are freely downloadable, even the artwork and if you can’t find the time to manage that then for a feebly small fee they’ll do the job for you. What makes this label so special is that each and everyone of the releases so far has been straight from the top drawer of electronica pop. Release numero six welcomes five nimble slices of dreamy lullabies from Atone (to you and I, Antoine Monzonis-Calvet to his parents). Think of a seriously chilled out ISAN under sedation (if that was at all possible) or the more frosted electronics that we have come to love and expect from the eminent Static Caravan label and here I’m thinking Ampop, Charles Atlas and Marcia Blaine. Call it funky chamber pop but it does it for me especially on the lunatic ‘Two Marimbas’ where you are set upon by the rush of what seems like a host of bargain basement synthesisers having a collective blip seizures before realising that it’s groovy core of the Clangers on vacation to the North Pole, subtle elements of the Penguin Café Orchestra and the nursery symphonies of Raymond Scott tussle and tease with the senses all the time pirouetting delicately lost in their own sweet incantations. ‘Balneaire’ moves apace to more celestial realms, still as cute as a big shiny button, tenderly shuffling beats navigate daintily skip and scratch over the surface of lonesome signatures forming frail angelic arcs to seductively sedate you though the EP’s finest point comes to fruition on the closing ‘qobac sine’, detached and less playful than what’s gone before, its reveals are darker tone that’s melancholic yet magnificent and all at once statue-esque and numbingly captivating like a lost Budd-esque score for some sinister thriller as though remixed by Carpenter with Satie pretensions. Excellent.

http://www.opuszine.com
A few months ago, I did a little write-up about Autres Directions In Music, a web-based label that offers all of its artists' music for download... for free (click here to download this entire EP). In ADIM's case, it's well worth the time and bandwidth, as their releases have all been consistently solid slices of lo-fi IDM, drone, and electronica. Atone continues the tiny label's tradition, with another solid release of homebrew, lo-fi electronica that hints at plenty of potential.
Originally recorded in the early months of 2003 for live performances, the 5 songs on Un Jour were eventually shelved due to resource limitations (in other words, the live performance didn't go off quite as planned). Taking a 3-month break from the songs, Atone (aka Antoine Monzonis-Calvet) returned to the studio for another stab, this time with better resources.
The result is a lovely enough assortment of tracks in the vein of Múm. Light, barely-there drum programs sputter and gurgle about, less concerned with driving the songs forward than anchoring and holding them in place - which gives Monzonis-Calvet's playful, toybox-like synths plenty of time and space in which to flit and flutter about like the spangles inside a kaleidoscope.
On the EP's opening track, synth bleeps and textures struggle to form a melody out of jumble of clattering, industrial noises. Although the song never comes completely together, even with gently sparkling rhythms and static-y drones joining the fray, it doesn't really matter. The process of blending the sounds, not to mention the qualities of the sounds themselves, prove fascinating enough. The same fluttering tones and textures flit about nearly all of the EP's tracks, combining in various and sundry ways.
"Two Marimbas" has an almost Plone-like feel in its playfulness, minus the twee-ness, as various bell-like tones ring out. "Balneaire" is one of the EP's more ambient tracks - the glitchy patterns lend only the slightest structure and weight to the dreamy tones that comprise much of the piece.
As lovely as Atone's sounds are, there is a sense that the songs lack a real focus. Monzonis-Calvet is incredibly adept at coaxing gorgeous sounds and textures from his equipment, but sometimes he seems at a loss when it comes to actually doing anything with them. As such, the EP's tracks sometimes feel less like true songs, and more like sketches and concepts waiting for that final element to pull everything together and deliver something truly spectacular.
The final track, "Qobac Sine", feels like the disc's most completed track, mainly because Monzonis-Calvet takes his time (the track clocks in at nearly 7 minutes) in piecing things together. "Qobac Sine" is also far more muted and solemn than anything else on the EP, with solemn tones and blurred pulses sounding out amidst the clouds of static that swirl and chip away at their perimeter.
But regardless, the disc only hints at Monzonis-Calvet's real potential, and with a few minor tweaks here and a little tightening there, the music could only get better. What's more, Atone's release further solidifies ADIM's "reputation" as a label with a real ear for solid music, and a devotion to a burgeoning scene that seems overflowing with talent. I don't know what's going on over there in Nantes, but I hope it doesn't stop anytime soon.

http://www.tesselate.me.uk
sup, time for a cracking piece of soundcoke from atone, this is the un jour ep on the autres directions in music, and you guessed it, its as french as they come, but thats not a bad thing lads and ladies. autres directions are a fucking class label, and you can get loads of their shit for free from their website, i advise strongly you get hold of one of their other releases this month, from propergol y colargol or your legs will fall the fuck off from gangereeeene. anyway, back to atone, and this is some ace spacegroove.
its a 5 track ep and its covered in lashings and lashing of mellow warm ambience, track 1, partir, introduces you to its house like an old friend but you cant remember their surname, but its ok, theres some post you can read it off, no worries mate, a relaxothon from planet france for your smooth ears. track 2, two marimbas, backs up the warmth from partir and brings its buddy energyman along for the ride, shooting us to a positive place high above pluto with some electrobeats and fuzznoise under a marimba hook that floats along, not uncomfortably, this is a corker mateeee. check the breakdown at the end ushering us into the lounge, sit anywhere you like, make yourself at home, that is track numero 3, balneaire. phase yourself in, nice and slow like, and check out this star map i got, it projects itself onto the ceiling, and have a quick drag on this columbian style reefer cigarette, try this beanbag out mate, and lie back, elements of a warmed up boards of canada slightly on this track, but thats just my opinion. a drifting ride, softly kissing you on the cheek with electroharpsichord, this ep gets better and better as you drive through it.
track 4, c'est fini, powers up the thrusters and dirties your face slightly with a deeper crisper drum track, shards of binary glass smash metaphysically next door but everythings cool holmes, the cyber dustpan and brush is already out, next to the stove.
and finally, track 5, qobac sine, exchanges mobile numbers with you at the front door, gives you a firm handshake and youre in the street now, stoned as a weasel, and the street lights are starting to come on, the sun is nearly set and electrobirds fly from pylon to pylon, searching for their next fix of sweet nectar. hail a cab and the world is in slow motion and washed out blue and grey and you feel relaxed in the leather back seat, time to go home, and straight to bed, work tommorow remember... you sink into your bed and your teeth feel smooth and fresh from the toothpaste and you fade out slowly.
this is a cracking release, 9/10 deifnately, a chilled out voyage indeed my friends, go get iiiiit.