Vromb - Rayons
Hugo Girard is a busy man. While his Vromb project has been in existence for a decade now, it has only been the last few years that he has become prolific with his output. 2003 saw three releases by Vromb with Rayons being his fourth full-length record. The focus in this record is on light, on what rays of light can sound like when converted into a musical experience.
"Klinikum" rises and falls with swooping curves, modulated tones which peak and ebb like the movement of light across a living room floor. The sounds on Rayons are completely fabricated on digital and analog equipment. Girard isn't experimenting with taking concrete data from some sort of scientific equipment and converting this signals to music; the tracks of Rayons are built by hand and are thematically structured to leave an impression of a visual experience on the listener. And so the ebb and flow of "Klinikum" is like watching a time-lapse film of light patterns moving across a floor.
There are beat patterns to some of these tracks, a sensation of movement which corresponds to the pace of the listener. "Éclairs" is a rendition of a thunderstorm. While you might stand under a tree and watch the stabs of lightning for awhile, when the rain starts to fall -- light glittering off the individual drops of rain as they come down -- you will consider better cover from the weather. The storm will follow, lightning breaking the sky behind you, the shining curtain of rain advancing upon your heels.
"Rayons" interjects some spoken voice bits (hmph, I guess not everything is sample free) into a scattered cut-up style that moves from beat landscape to washes of sound before vanishing in a buzzing hash of chattering noise. "La Rayure" stomps through the room like a fat beam of white light, a brilliant pulse of pure energy who incandescent flashes leave trails of sparks on your retinas. "Perpendiculaire" feels like you are riding an infinite conveyer belt, humming past broad windows which allow the light to spatter you in wide stripes. You can close your eyes and still see the light and dark patterns playing out against your eyelids. "Circuit Imprimé" chatters like sunlight sparkling off the water of a lake. You can feel the chop of the waves against the bottom of your boat, rocking you back and forth, while the scattered light dances across the watery landscape. The closing track, "Deuxième Générateur," is gentler than the preceding tracks, filled with undulating waves of soft noise and the whirring pulse of an oscillating tone. The light of "Deuxième Générateur" is man-made, colored by our grip on the prism, and less permanent than the brilliant light from the sun. This light is powered by machinery and, as the power dies, so does the light. Girard touches upon night with this final track, as the tones and the rivers of sound fade out in a rising note of panic and apprehension, you are left in an environment bereft of light.
Girard's approach to crafting the music of Rayons is creative and innovative and, ultimately, it is his muse. You don't need to know that the impetus of the tracks is an effort to reconstruct light events on a musical scale. Vromb's style of ambient music -- flush with glitch and electronic beats -- is engaging and always listenable. But knowing how and why he makes the songs he does adds a level on enjoyment. Instrumental music isn't just meant to be noise in the background; it should also engage your brain. Rayons is twice as fascinating if you are willing to dream along with it. Excellent.
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