quête:tristan grace

"For a long time, I'd come across these discs without really understanding what connected them, apart from a button and that famous logo designed by René Dessirier. Then, with a little more digging, I discovered the "self-production" link. For choirs, schools, folk singers, young pop groups, popular homes and even great composers who engraved unique copies of certain recording sessions...

The French equivalent of the English "Derby Service", the Kiosque d'Orphée, formerly at 7 Rue Grégoire de Tours in the 6th arrondissement, was taken over by Georges Batard in 1967 and moved to 20 Rue des Tournelles in the 4th arrondissement of Paris. The adventure lasted until 1991. Georges Batard was a sound engineer who used a Neumann tube engraver to engrave acetates from the tapes he received, before printing the precious vinyls in the press factories of the day, where he was able to produce very small runs of between 50 and 500 copies.

Of course, there were other structures for releasing his records, such as Voxigrave or, later, FLVM, but none of them had so many records in their catalog. Le Kiosque d'Orphée was neither a label nor a publisher, but a structure that allowed you to press your own vinyl, at a time when it was quite an adventure to get your first 45 rpm or 33 rpm album released!

Georges Batard was described as passionate and conscientious. His son, bassist Didier Batard, wrote of him:
"Georges was passionate about recording and reproducing the stereo sound of his great passion, music. He paid close attention to distortion rates, signal-to-noise ratios, response curves, rise times and other damping factors in audio equipment. He was looking for the exact reproduction of concert hall sound in his living room (with the same sound level, if possible...). In the late '50s/early '60s, he found other sound enthusiasts in AFDERS (Association Française pour le Développement de l'Enregistrement et de la Reproduction Sonores). He became its honorary president. Every Saturday afternoon, its members met to test au- dio equipment. Their opinions were published in the monthly Revue du Son.

All you had to do was send in your tapes and choose the number of record copies you'd like to take home with you, so you could finally share your creations and, in a way, exist. You could opt for a generic sleeve, available in several colors, directly customizable with your name and credits, or you could design your dream sleeve yourself in your living room or at a printer's.

This "Do It Yourself" temple gave birth to some superb pouches. Stencilled, hand-written, illustrated with paintings, drawings, illustrations by friends or girlfriends of the time, photo prints hastily stuck in the middle of a blank, white sleeve, on which the traces of time would leave their imprints, so that collectors and the curious would come and buy them decades later, with the promise of a musical discovery, unfortunately not always fulfilled...

What most of these records have in common is the youth of their songwriters, whether or not they've had a career. Stories of buddies, of getting by and dreams of glory made up this catalog. Most of them were amateur productions, both in terms of the level of the musicians and the quality of the recordings, made on a two-track or, the ultimate luxury, a 4-track in a teenager's bedroom or parents' living room.

It was the beginning of the home studio, thanks to the advent of the Revox portable tape recorder. A bit of a shaky DIY system, but, in return, the luxury of setting no limits: one-sided tracks, no outside censorship, no artistic director, no manager, no Barclay or EMI/Pathé Marconi logos...

When you finally had your own record, you could give it away or sell it to friends, family or after concerts. You could also drop it off at the nearest record shop, with undisguised pride.

It was also a calling card that could be sent to radio stations or music labels, in the hope of launching a career...

Many of the protagonists in this story tried to sign with labels, but in those days, bridges were not so easy to build between one's hometown, or even one's village, and the major or more specialized label that might have released these records. At the time, the advertisements published in the press by the Kiosque d'Orphée opened up the field of possibilities for provincial composers. It was now possible to make their own record, without having to go through the process of signing with a label.

Some of the composers who have gone on to make a career have used this channel to release their first record or parallel projects (Claude Engel, Dominique A, Andy Emler, Michel Deneuve, Claude Mairet, Mick Piellard, Tristan Mu- rail...) and sometimes even single or very limited pressings of work or promotional copies (Bernard Parmegiani, Jef Gilson...).

This album is the conclusion of a long investigation, begun six years ago. It took a long time to find the records, scattered all over the place, in the homes of collectors and sometimes the musicians themselves, and then to listen to them, sometimes painstakingly, to unearth these moments of grace.

From this work, 23 tracks remain, but there are dozens of others that could have been included, so we had to choose, and the choice had to be as universal as possible. This selection is obviously not objective, but I hope you'll like it.

Today's music is raw, touching and powerful. "

Jean-Baptiste Guillot - Born Bad Records

'The Devil, The Heart & The Fight' is Skinny Lister's third studio album and is repressed here on yellow vinyl. The band are currently supporting Flogging Molly across the US, have summer festivals confirmed and will be touring across UK and Europe by the end of the year. 'The Devil, The Heart & The Fight' was recorded over five weeks in Newcastle Under Lyme’s Silk Mill Studio in May 2016 with producer Tristan Ivemy (Frank Turner, The Holloways), it is Skinny Lister’s most far-reaching, exciting and accomplished album yet. It’s a full-on rock record that splashes even more punk vigour and eighties pop elements across their fervent folk canvas, taking in hints of Adam Ant and The Clash. It also brings the folk storytelling tradition bang up to date with its brutally honest and close to the knuckle lyrics of real-life stories (‘Geordie Lad’, ‘Charlie’) and on-the-road mayhem, the Pogue-ish ‘Hamburg Drunk’. A mature, vibrant and varied record, it mingles classic Skinny folk romances (‘Grace’, ‘Reunion’) with epic rock takes on rafter-rattling shanties (‘Beat It From The Chest’) and hearty Dexys-style tributes to the fans they meet on the road (‘Fair Winds & Following Seas’), plus a hitherto unseen darker side. Take the deceptively upbeat ‘Injuries’, Dan’s ode on the bruising nature of life, or ‘Devil In Me’, in which Lorna comes on like a particularly melodic Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction. • The Devil, The Heart & The Fight hit the UK Top 40 in the two independent album charts (#38 ‘Breakers’ chart, and #11 Independent Album Chart). • Has received over 2.5million streams on Spotify and the videos have reached over 400K views on YouTube. • Global radio support from 6Music, Radio X in UK Radio Eins, Flux FM, Star FM in Germany and WBSD, WRFL, WYCE, KSJS, WAWL, KPNT, WRIF, KXRN, Indie.FM, WVMO, and WCSF in USA. PRESS QUOTES: “…considerably upped their game.” 4/5 Q Magazine album review “…a deafening and visceral experience.” 5/5 Independent live review from London Garage. "This album has a wholesome kind of dirtiness woven deep into the tapestry of each of the songs." Subba Cultcha "The Devil, The Heart & The Fight’ sees them break their own mould, in places amplifying the popular influences on their sound yet retaining their fundamental roots." Punktastic “(a) kaleidoscope of high octane folk punk via Dexy’s and The Pogues” Louder Than War

Having released his debut album Around The Corner in 2018, as well as a critically acclaimed LP in collaboration with Los Angeles-based musician Tristan de Liège two years later, Keno aka David Hanke's latest opus, Out Past The Current, brings together not only some of his finest remixes from the past four years but also a handful of new and exclusive works.

Once again Hanke's love for more downtempo styles is on show - a passion that has immersed the producer into the electronic music scene since the early 2000s. Developing his own style over the last few years with lush instrumentations, more complex songwriting and distinctive drum programming, his songs and remixes ease the mind with echoes from the past.

The story of how Transatlantyk came to be is, in many ways, one typical of our times. We've grown accustomed to being isolated, even stranded, in recent months, and Technology has become our means of overcoming these aspects of quarantine.

For Lübeck-based producer David Hanke, a.k.a. Keno, and Los Angeles-based musician Tristan de Liège, their intercontinental relationship began long before the days of lockdowns and social distancing. The pair 'met' on-line through mutual friends back in 2018 and quickly realised they were, in a musical sense, kindred spirits. Their shared tastes meant that what started out as a single track quickly morphed into an EP, and finally the full length album that you're enjoying right now.

Tristan's experience as a neo-classical musician was the ideal foil for Hanke's skills with a sample and production expertise. Both shared a love of the more lush and cinematic end of instrumental Hip-Hop and Downtempo music. This sound partnership is evident throughout the album, but particularly on tracks like Nkosi, and the title track, where luscious string sections dance playfully with fractured, programmed beats; or the melancholic opener, Kouyou, where more laid back drums underpin muted horns and joyous harps.

The pair's perfectly formed fusion isn't the end of the story though, as French chanteuse Elodie Rama is on hand to provide not only some impeccable vocals, but also irresistible melodies to this already mellifluous long-player. Speak The Language sees this brilliant vocalist drift seamlessly between euphonious song and spoken word whilst delivering one of the ariose moments of the whole album. Elsewhere, on Dancing In The Dark, Elodie gives a slightly more sombre performance, combining with lavish strings and driving rhythms to a tee; and on To Find A Way offers up an even more emotional and almost heart-breaking performance, aided by wistful and forlorn instrumentation.

Transatlantyk is a body of work from an amalgamation of rare talents who combine beautifully to take us through myriad emotions; from the urgent and compelling Off The Mark via the pensive Forever We Were, and finally find their Way Across thanks to a shared love of graceful and refined musicality and a good song.

To this day the three have never actually met in person, but here's a last hopeful thought that one day soon, as we emerge out of the darkness, they can finally join together in a physical, as well as a musical, embrace.