Ensemble 0 joue Elpmas

Released in the early 90’s, produced by Andi Toma (Mouse on mars), ‘Elpmas‘ is a real concept-album mixing the woody tones of the marimbas, numerous field-recordings and borrowed Japanese forms to draw an ode to nature and a manifesto against the abuse of the aboriginal people. Twenty-five years later, the message is still terribly relevant. The title of the album reads “sample” backwards, evoking the samples frequently used in electronic music. To create the album, Moondog recorded note by note the entire range of a marimba and natural sound environments, used processing and other audio loops; all with the help of the “computer”. He thought that only this tool would be able to reproduce his complex and sinuous interlacing. ‘Elpmas‘ has only ever existed in the studio.

The (re)reading that the Ensemble 0 proposes, conveys on stage the organic warmth of real marimba blades, the analogue track of a revox for the playing of the field-recordings, the voices of today mingling with the ghosts of the past (using some original instrumental material (viola da gamba, double bass) recorded in 1991) to bring back a music that is inspired as much by the canons of Johann Sebastian Bach as it is by the Amerindian Pow-Wow and by electronic music.

LINE-UP:
Julien Garin :  bombo, marimba, glockenspiel
Stéphane Garin : bombo, field-recordings, marimba, xylophone
Eriko Minami : marimba, vocals
Amélie Grould : marimba, xylophone
Barbara Hünninger : viola da gamba
Joël Mérah : banjo, zither
Julien Pontvianne : tenor saxophone, clarinet
Vincent Malassis : electronics