Ensemble Economique – Standing Still, Facing Forward

Ensemble Economique’s Standing Still, Facing Forward LP + digital will be available on July 6th. The LP comes packaged with a b/w art booklet featuring the work of Los Angeles-based artist Stacie Jaye Meyer and comes wrapped in letterpressed obi strip designed by Bryan Christopher Baker….

Boomkat review:

Last seen on these pages releasing his At The Foot Of Nameless Roads album for Digitalis, Ensemble Economique (aka Brian Pyle of Starving Weirdos) contributes the second release to Amish Records’ Required Wreckers series. Standing Still, Facing Forward is comprised of field recordings, found sounds and instrumental performances that get looped and layered into a substantial whole. ‘With You At Brandy Creek’ makes for a riveting opener, stretching out minor-key string exchanges to great effect, leading into the more electronic ‘Chamber Of Light’, whose spiralling tones enter into a more discordant framework that only seems to intensify during next track, ‘Strangler Figs’. Clashing percussive sweeps merge with tense, asthmatic drones and FX outbreaks of thunder storms, all of which adds up to an immersive and addictively unsettling horror movie feel. Wildlife recordings play a big part in the ten-minute drone of ‘Angkor Wat In The Mist’, adding bird and insect noise to a soundscape full of strange orchestral samples and modulating sustains. Standing Still is a fascinating listen, blurring lines between studio work, natural world documentary recordings and sampling. The outcome is loaded with atmosphere and tension, sounding greatly like some lost film soundtrack.

With You, At Brandy Creek

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Side A

1. With You, At Brandy Creek
2. Chamber of Light
3. Strangler Figs

B Side

4. Angkor Wat, In The Mist
5. Night Escape On Water, The City In Flames
6. On The Threshold, Through And Through

LP available throug Amish Records here
Digital available through Boomkat here

www.myspace.com/ensembleeconomique
www.amishrecords.com