ROADS - Vol.1

Album review

Everybody out! French electronic musicians can no longer be locked away in the studio. More and more of them are setting off on an adventure to compose their music - Molecule in Greenland, NSDOS in Alaska, and indeed Thylacine for his album Transsiberian in 2015 which was composed on the train that runs from Moscow to Vladivostok, exactly as its name suggests. For this new album William Rezé sets off once again, this time on a road-trip to the Andes Cordillera in Argentina with a caravan that he fixed-up and transformed into a mobile studio powered by solar-panels.

On this album you can expect to find the plucked strings of the charango, a small guitar that is characteristic of Andean sounds (especially on Murga) and, of course, more atmospheric productions by Thylacine who loves nothing more than to paint pictures with sound. Whilst El Alba featuring Clara Trucco on vocals has a trip hop vibe, the French producer has a similar mentality to Laurent Garnier on The Road with a bass that isn’t too overpowering, a mellow beat and an ethereal piano, making it the perfect sunset soundtrack. On the other hand, Volver is more reminiscent of Paul Kalkbrenner’s style with a hypnotic melody accompanied by the sound of his childhood instrument, the saxophone, subdued with filters. The result is a Latin American version of Autobahn. © Smaël Bouaici/Qobuz