OISEAUX-TEMPÊTE
French post-rock experimentalists embark on a journey to another dimension.
OISEAUX-TEMPÊTE STARTED WHEN Frédéric Oberland travelled to Greece in 2012 with photographer Stéphane Charpentier to document the economic and political turmoil there. The situation inspired him to start a new musical project as a reaction.“Back in Paris, I asked my friend Stéphane Pigneul, with whom I played in FareWell Poetry and Le Réveil Des Tropiques, to join me to sonically improvise around this trip.” Pigneul recalls, “Everything happened very quickly, naturally and to be honest without any artistic career in mind. We just had one rehearsal jam in a random studio… [we recorded a session and sent] the material to our favourite label Sub Rosa and they replied in a day, telling us they wanted to sign us. It was a fantastic period of creation and friendship.”
They later added multi-instrumentalist Paul Régimbeau, known by his alias Mondkopf, to form a trio. Although the core was stable, they remained restless, with a curiosity to explore the wider world. They travelled back to Greece for their 2013 debut, then to Turkey and Sicily for 2015’s Ütopiya?. Their 2017 album, Al-’An was part-recorded in Lebanon, and From Somewhere Invisible was tracked at Hotel2Tango in Montreal in 2019. Just as the band’s genesis came from a non-musical inspiration, these records were as much inspired by place, local collaborators, and found sounds and field recordings.
Now a sprawling collective, there’s a marked difference between the band as a live presence versus on record. As squalling and dynamic as they are, their studio recordings are an attempt to bottle lightning.
As Pigneul explains, “We just jump into the music, let our momentary influences guide us, pick up some tricks in our pockets when we feel stuck, but that’s all. We improv, then edit, then sometimes add some layers when we feel it misses something, and then we mix.”
In the case of upcoming release What On Earth, this process was “almost five years of different sessions,” according to Oberland, “from big ensembles with six or seven musicians in the studio to more intimate sessions as a trio with Stéphane and Paul.” There was then a concerted effort to arrange and mix with a view to a more polished result than some of their previous efforts.
As they look ahead to performing the album live, Oberland observes,“We have to remind [ourselves] how to play these tracks as we often played it just once, for the recording.”
Pigneul agrees,“We are constantly improvising in the studio and on stage… We never perform twice the same track basically, so we can’t ever be bored!”
Just as their musical DNA has a common core but individual differences, what the trio love about music also differs.“[Music] is a universal language pushing all boundaries,” begins Oberland.
Pigneul picks up,“The weightlessness that you feel when you listen to or play music is like magic, you are just transported to another dimension.”
Mondkopf finishes the thought,“It’s a connection with people, but also with the inner self. The power of sound [has] a mysterious effect which transforms time and space.”