Extra-ordinary, mystic journey into musical world of these two long-running, legendary french projects. This album was composed from the old, but also completely new material (1986-2007), it includes both studio and live recordings, re-arranged and reworked for your listening pleasure. The first ever Vox Populi! CD after many vinyls and tapes produced in 80-90s. Acoustics and electronics, lyricism and dramatics, traditions and avantgarde.
Release date is 24st November 2007. Limited edition of 500 copies in jewelcase.
Price is 13US$/10€.
To order directly from us, please write to
hq(at)monochromevision.ru.
Pacific 231 is the project of Pierre Jolivet, a French musician now
residing in Ireland. It came into existence in the early 80s and
belonged to the first wave of industrial groups. Early albums were
released by Le Syndicat, Cause And Effect & Bunker Records. Invaluable
assistance in due time was given by Psyclones with whom Pierre
recorded a couple of albums under the Psy 231 moniker, which were released
on their label Ladd-Frith.
While the early Pacific 231 albums like "Thulé Apocalypse" and
"Unusual Perversions" show us the bridge between power
electronics and old school industrial, the later ones are much more
experimental in sound and appeals to quite another perception type --
in no way to some numb stupor and paralyzing fear but to a complex
balance of concentration and relaxation, governed by the harmony of
resonances and transitional processes. The research was made on highly
organic and self-consumed struggle occuring on the speculative level.
Pierre is extremely exact in dealing with musical matter, slightly
elucidating only those areas that do not bring danger though are not
particularly flattering to your ears. His focus is primarily on sound
- awkward, free of gloss but not free of sonic charm.
Recently Pierre's activity has slowed and his style has undergone
substantial changes, moving far from noise music into the sphere of
experimental electronics and synthetic sound. The album "Ethnicities,"
released in 2006, is the first after a long hiatus. It embraces
the whole epoque: urban soundscapes are melting away with the tropical
forest invasion, the semi-authentic ethnic rhythms are dissolving in
the psychedelic ambience. Pierre's interest in ethnic music finds its
extension in the most recent album "Palestine" recorded for Old Europa
Cafe in collaboration with Rapoon. This is a kind of ethno-trance
suite devoted to the memory of Bryn Jones (Muslimgauze).
In this connection, we must mention the long history between
Pacific 231 and another French long lived band Vox Populi!. It was
founded in 1981 by Axel Kyrou and released some remarkable LPs in the
80s, including the collaborations with HNAS and Pacific 231. Also
interested in experiments with ethnic and industrial instrumentation,
improvising and collages, Vox Populi! creates very rich pieces,
drawing on psychedelic and traditional music, but avantgarde and
mystical approach as well. Till now, none of their albums have been
released on CD, making this retrospective their only available CD recordings.
"Pacific 231 and I met in 1983. We quickly set up the independent record company VP 231 which released the first vinyls of Vox Populi! and Pacific 231 as well as a few LPs and cassette compilations. Toward the end of 1983, a short lived industrial band was formed called Berlinerluft featuring Pacific 231, myself and a singer. Just a live tape was released (recorded in October 1983 at the first and last Industrial Music Festival in Paris). Later, we went on doing music together as a duo from time to time, our main interest still being in our respective projects. In 1986 Cthulhu Records (from Germany) released a tape of Vox 231 (i.e. Vox Populi! + Pacific 231) called "Ebats Spirituels". At the time, we, Vox Populi!, were beginning to perform live and we invited Pacific 231 to join us. From 1986 to 1988 our gigs featured Pacific 231. He would do a solo act before joining us on stage. In 1987 Cthulhu Records released a second tape, this time by Vox Populi! called "Half Dead Ganja Music". It featured Pacific 231 on nearly all the tracks. As the title says: if it's half live, it's therefore also half dead. The B side was recorded live, mainly in Germany."