des-illusions by Bruno Duplant & David Vélez

Illusion (French), Ilusión (Spanish): To get one’s hopes up Désillusion (French), Desilusión (Spanish): Disappointment.

The genesis of this project is a conversation between Bruno and David about making music in current times of social and environmental crisis. This dialogue prompted an exchange of recordings, found sounds and other sonic material, advancing two pieces. Artistically, Bruno perceives himself as a pessimist acknowledging the presence of this thinking in his abundant music production, which is mainly collaborative. However, David perceives Bruno’s prolific creation and cooperation with other artists as evidence of optimism or at least as an act of resisting pessimism. For both artists, when new artwork is brought forth in the world, it embodies new ideas encouraging experiences and reflections with a potential agency in the same way that the vibration of a tiny drop of water echoes on the place where it falls. In his continuous music production, Bruno detects a necessity; and David connects his own artistic creation with contesting the moment of despair we experience and its effects on our emotional health. In both stances, there is an element of self-care in music making, which in the case of this collaboration is mutual care. When the future for humans looks as gloomy as it does today, getting one’s hopes up emerges as pointless, leading to inevitable disappointment. However, for Bruno and David, artists have no choice other than creating and continuously entangling themselves in this paradox as an act of mitigation.

(David Vélez & Bruno Duplant/edited by David Vélez, 9 March 2023)

Tracklist

1.	part I	22:00

2.	part II	21:00

Credits

released April 24, 2023

LOCATIONS : North of France + usine Cavrois Mahieu à Roubaix, Lindley, Birchencliffe, and Huddersfield in West Yorshire, Northern England.

Bruno Duplant : Sounds and instruments recorded in the North of France.
David Vélez : Recordings, performances, and found sounds advanced in indoor and outdoor
locations in West Yorkshire, England.
Mastered by Bruno Duplant at La Salle de Jeu, Waziers, France.

Thanks to Bruno Duplant, David Vélez, Daniel Crokaert, Lina Velandia, Andrew Wilson at The Making Space, The Beetroot Collective, Supriya Nagarajan, and Colin Frank.

Cover & card design + treatments by Daniel Crokaert.
Photo portraits : Bruno Duplant by Melvil Duplant, and David Vélez by Lina Velandia.
Based almost exclusively on photos by Bruno Duplant & David Vélez, experiments within Midjourney, and some additional textures from Unfathomless’ archive.

License