SHENZHOU

I agree with the previous review about the fact that this album can be seen as a "denaturisation" of Debussy classical masterpieces. However I think that we have to listen to this album with new ears, without taking in consideration that it's taken from old recordings reserved for destroying electronic treatments. This is far to be perfection because there's no real compositions but we must keep in mind that the objective is to create an architecture of "souvenirs" for a new breath. As many avant gardist albums playing with "turntabalism" we have to consider de-structured sounds, distortions of audio tapes or vinyls as part of a sonic spectrum, putting in the music the physical materiality of the recording...this is more a deconstruction work for intimate thoughts. Moreover I consider that the choice of musical extracts is definitely original and go perfectly with micro processing, cuts & manipulations. The ensemble provides a vertiginous sensation, sometimes reaching the listener in a creeping darkness or dreaming emotion. Philip Jeck published similar works in the past and we can obviously detect his influence in "Shenzou". After all "Shenzhou" is a difficult album, it needs several listenings but it remains an important musical document.