125: Pierre Bastien

Ok yeah, I've posted Pierre Bastien before, but I am a big fan of his. He's avant-garde enough to keep his music really interesting, but not so inaccessible to alienate all but five listeners a la John Cage (for the record, I like John Cage, but his music was more interesting to read about than to actually listen to sometimes). For those who missed the last post, Pierre Bastien makes music with robots. They're not particularly advanced robots. They're about as advanced as the old erector sets that came with motors so they could perform rudimentary tasks. The result is that they can only play is simple patterns, which are played in a very perfect, mechanical rhythm. The track titles for all the songs on his last album, Mecanoid, were all written as palandroms, the same way the mechanical music is played. The same music is played forward and backwards. Half the instruments are played this way, the others played by Pierre himself. The range of instruments is also pretty eclectic too, including a godje, bendir, and yuen ch'in, alongside horns, pianos and vinyl discs. With a new album, Pop, being released this year on Rephlex, there are some new downloads available. The first two are from Mecanoid, the third is from an album called Musiques Paralloidres, and the last one is a repost from the last time I blogged about Pierre Bastien.

For anyone wondering, here's the breakdown of instruments for the first two tracks, according to the Mecanoid linear notes:
-mechanically played instruments on Damn Mad: castanets, marimba, discs
-instruments played by Pierre Bastien on Damn Mad: bass, bala, tama, organ
-mechanically played instruments on Avid Diva: piano
-instruments played by Pierre Bastien on Avid Diva: sanzas, kundi, godje

Pierre Bastien - Damn Mad
Pierre Bastien - Avid Diva
Pierre Bastien - Odovinil
Pierre Bastien - L'Orchestre Thermo-Dynamique (repost)
(source)