Meridians by Franz Kirmann
Best known as half of post-classical / electronica duo Piano Interrupted, London based French producer Franz Kirmann goes back to his electronic roots with “Meridians”, his second album, out on Denovali Records.
Strongly influenced by movies (he used to be a film editor and filmmakers Wong Kar Wai, Michelangelo Antonioni, Sergio Leone or David Lynch are happily cited alongside his musical influences), Franz Kirmann has a weakness for walls of sounds and fragile melodies, which to him are the sonic equivalent of slow-motion sequences, travelling shots or landscapes in cinemascope.
While his first album – Random Access Memories (released in June 2011) - was a sort of compilation of music he'd written since 2005, “Meridians” is a more consistent proposition where tracks were put together using the same technique of assembling tiny audio snippets and samples with a strong emotional content (from a pop vocal to an orchestral extract) and transforming them beyond recognition, to then assemble them and create something new and unique.
Music was then composed from the resulting sampling manipulation, adding layers of vintage synthesizers, drum machines and granular soundscapes and resulting in a sound that could be best described as a meeting point between an 80's synthesizer soundtrack and a post-modern electronic record.
The album title "Meridians" comes from the Chinese medicine's belief in the Meridian network, a path through which the life-energy flows. The album has a strong sense of an internal journey, the music being both an invitation to introversion and reverie but also suggesting an epic voyage. The meridians could be regarded as vessels carrying emotions, souvenirs, thoughts, travelling through the body and mind, provoking a voyage through one's own life without the need for movement.
Nods to the 7th art are not only found in the sound and feel of the album but also in its titles. Each of them suggest a story or moment while remaining vague enough to let the listener fills the blanks.
