textura

Albums
17 Pygmies
A Dancing Beggar
A Guide For Reason
Alonefold
Gabriel Ananda
Antonymes
Arborea
Art Department
Baker & thisquietarmy
Bee Mask
Richard Chartier
Seth Cluett
Daedelus
Deep Magic
Dentist
Kyle Bobby Dunn
Dominik Eulberg
Fabric
Fancy Mike
Forrest Fang's Sans Serif
Randy Gibson
Mark Hakonen-Meddings
Hana
Ezekiel Honig
Kode9 and the Spaceape
Akira Kosemura
Logreybeam
Manik
Mokira
Murcof
BJ Nilsen & Stilluppsteypa
M. Ostermeier
Posthuman
Prefuse 73
Pulseprogramming
Quiet Evenings
May Roosevelt
M. Ruhlmann & B. Bailey
Savaran
Simko
Tape
Tokyo Bloodworm
Yamaoka

Compilations / Mixes
Ata
Cloud 11
Echocord Jubilee Comp.
Era One
M.A.N.D.Y.
Nick Warren

EPs
A Guide For Reason
Autechre
Circle Traps
Deepbass
DJ Duke
Finesse
Mokira
Rone
Nigel Samways
Janek Schaefer
Semtek
Tracey Thorn

Logreybeam: Perhaps
Les Enregistrements Variables

Imagine yourself sitting inside a busy French cafe in a seedy section of Paris, when suddenly a quintet of piano, accordion, bass, woodwinds, and vibes players takes to the stage to serenade the listeners with music that's sometimes jovial and high-spirited but more often heartbreakingly sad and tender. That sound you're hearing could very well be a live version of Perhaps, the latest album from Gabriel Morley under the Logreybeam name (the Type and CCO recording artist is also one-half of Yasume) and the second release from the Montreal-based label Les Enregistrements Variables.

The songs' melancholy character is deepened by the mournful wheeze of the accordion, lonely call of the clarinet, and stark elegance of the piano, and the creak and shuffle of indoors ambient sounds surfaces in some of the pieces to strengthen the illusion of the cafe setting (“Roma Dance Party” even includes applause and clapping). The opening piece, “Prologue,” sets the tone with sombre themes voiced by clarinet, accordion, and piano—the perfect soundtrack for drowning one's sorrows in drink. The saxophone's honk lends “Roma Dance Party” a Michael Nyman-esque quality, even if the accordion playing gives the light-footed romp a breeziness that helps it stay true to the album's style. Logreybeam gets a bit of help from others on some songs, specifically Janice Marder, who adds vocals to the sorrowful “Melody Pines,” and Julien Neto, whose whisper stretches across “This Torment and This Thought” (a melodically bereft setting that's the album's sole disappointment, incidentally). Morley may reside in California, USA, but the album's romantic feel is thoroughly old-world Europe in the best way possible.

May 2011