Secret Thirteen Mix 128 - DSCRD

The authors of the mix are Matthieu Gayon and Romain Mascagni, who forms a part of DSCRD (a.k.a. Discordance), a French electronic music quintet from Paris. Officially, DSCRD consists of five individuals with a strong interest into experimentations in the field of minimalistic, subtly rhythmical and noisy ‘underground’ music scene. The band was formed by three childhood friends Matthieu, Aymeric and Romain in 2008. Although it took a couple of years for them to fully mature DSCRD’s musical concept and to achieve a final cutting-edge sound. Everything crystallized after Thomas and Pierre joined their forces.

DSCRD members were grown up in the same culture, in the same generation, they also share many common interests and probably this close connection between them should turn into a long lasting collision of fresh mind and ideas. Apart from the works of the masters, classic, acoustic, early electronic and experimental music from past decades, new and weird music available these days, DSCRD is also highly influenced by educational literature, philosophy, new technologies, science, politics etc.

Since the year 2011 the band has released 3 EPs on Stroboscopic Artefacts and DEMENT3D labels. Moreover, their production was remixed by Polar Inertia and Lucy, and was included in various compilations such as “Various - Stellate 4”, as well as published by Silicate Musique. With a right focus on sound design and production, music tools creation and software programming the band keeps exponentially growing and improving their skills with every new release or live performance they present. While accumulating and valuing the collective practise, DSCRD has achieved unusual results that break both musical and social limits. Their harmony and playful experimentations/improvisations with the equipment on the scene always bring unexpected, but enjoyable experience for the listeners. DSCRD’s aesthetic language is widely centered on the idea of natural shaping. Project members state that their sound is “about techno music but whose field of possibilities is not confined merely to sound synthesis, musical instrument pickup or a particular investigation”. It is where dance-floor music is transformed into more complex, embossed and subconscious musical phenomenon.

DSCRD are also passionate for all the possible ways of sound to make sense and this is why they pay attention to the overall visualization, which follows their releases and live shows too. Their latest performances at such conceptual festivals as Berlin Atonal or Fasma are clear proof of that. At the moment DSCRD is working on the new EP, improving their audio-visual projects together with cineast Marie Demaricourt and preparing to do 2 hours live performance in Paris. Moreover, they have a track waiting to be released on the “5 Years Anniversary of Stroboscopic Artefacts” album.

“Secret Thirteen Mix 128” is an enigmatic and elaborate mix by DSCRD that was selected from more than 30 cinematic records and rich field-recordings, which have a strong character and are mostly related to the musique concrète, electroacoustics, improvised, traditional and contemporary electronic music and its’ composing/producing principles. These pieces reflect band’s primary musical influences and sophistication. The mix was skillfully filled with diverse works of such memorable composers as Bernard Parmegiani, Eliane Radigue, Hildegard Westerkamp, and established musicians such as Cosey Fanni Tutti, Kouhei Matsunaga, Yves De Mey and others. A fact that Matthieu and Romain have used a lot of pieces by feminine composers makes this mix more intriguing and adds more colours to it. Deliberate, careful and harmonious mixing can not be unnoticed. Complex layering of the wisely edited tracks generates something like a déjà vu when the listener can feel familiar sound, but in a slightly different mood or perspective. These perfectly fused recordings that were transferred through DSCRD’s prism, are instantly expanding and reaching completely different consonances, musical philosophies and concepts. The sound is ranging from deep, isolated and immersive atmospheres to intense experimentations and wide palette of authentic percussions and recordings. This breathtaking imaginary sound structure is quite similar to Zdzisław Beksiński’s surreal sculpture “Untitled” that triggers the most abyssal thoughts and sometimes even utopian visions, that needs time to crystallize. Painstaking and patient work put in this mix deserves highest incentives and also could stand as a good example of what creativity, perfection and solid musical attitude is.

DSCRD about the idea of their mix:

In her work “Attending to Sacred Matters”, Hildegard Westerkamp documents the impressive depth and importance of religion in Indian culture, and tries to “create a place of inner stillness, a sacred place of energy, attention and creativity, of deeper listening”.

Far from being that ambitious and encyclopedic, our work originally aimed to embrace the same process by documenting different aspect of musical trance and rites, through a multitude of culturally stained artworks and sound practices, from ethnomusic archives and experimental practices in the 70s, to recent electronic explorations or self made compositions with field recordings. More than working on a collage and digging the multitude (although it’s honestly intended to be based on that), we somehow wanted to find this “secret place of energy”, where temporalities get blurred and previously colliding musical elements slightly shift to a common place of exchange, on a deeper listening level.

Tracklist:

01. Bernard Parmegiani - Moins L'infini [INA-GRM ‎- 1996]
02. Bernard Parmegiani - Immer sounds [INA-GRM ‎- 1999]
03. Daniel Menche - Untitled 2 (taken from "Jugularis") [Important Records - 2006]
04. Michèle Bokanowski - Tabou [trAce Label - 2009]
05. Hildegard Westerkamp - Attending To Sacred Matters [Earsay Productions - 2002]
06. The Master Musicians Of Jajouka : Brian Jones Presents The Pipes Of Pan At Jajouka - Take me with you darling, take me with you [Point Music - 1995]
07. Bruce Miller - temples (taken from "Field Recordings from India") - Free Music Archive, licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License.
08. field recordings edit (Dscrd)
09. Bernard Parmegiani - Premières formes [INA-GRM ‎- 1996]
10. Kouhei Matsunaga - Pinky w/ Internet Magic [Important Records - 2010]
11. Mobb Deep - [The Infamous Prelude] [Loud Records - 1995]
12. Amazonian forest field recordings (unknown)
13. Christine Groult ‎- Les Frontieres De L'Autre (2001) [Motus - 2006]
14. Ami Yoshida ‎- Untitled 1,2 and 28 (taken from “Tiger Crush”) [Improvised Music From Japan ‎- 2003]
15. Arnaud des Pallières - Excerpt from the movie "Disneyland, mon vieux pays natal" [ARTE France Distribution : Les Films d’ici, 2000]
16. Yves De Mey - Cadence [Archives Intérieures - 2013]
17. Jari-Pekka Koho - Percussions Sounds [Om Ha Sva Ha Ksha Ma La Va Ra Yam - 2008]
18. CoH Plays Cosey - Sin-King [Raster-Noton - 2008]
19. Toshimaru Nakamura - Nimb #2 [Zero Gravity - 2000]
20. Radu Malfatti & Klaus Filip - oto [erstwhile records - 2009] 21. Eliane Radigue - Onward 19 [Important Records - 2009]
22. Toshimaru Nakamura - Nimb #3 [Zero Gravity - 2000]
23. The Master Musicians Of Jajouka : Brian Jones Presents The Pipes Of Pan At Jajouka - 55 (Hamsa Oua Hamsine) [Point Music - 1995]
24. The Master Musicians Of Jajouka : Brian Jones Presents The Pipes Of Pan At Jajouka - War Song / Standing + One Half (Kaim Oua Nos) [Point Music - 1995]
25. Kouhei Matsunaga - Solid Fat featuring Sensational [Important Records - 2010]
26. Utah Kawasaki - Socket [Improvised Music From Japan - 2011]
27. Eliane Radigue - Onward 9,5 [Important Records - 2009]
28. Utah Kawasaki - Inanition [Radio - 2002]
29. Eliane Radigue - Adnos II [Table Of The Elements - 2002]
30. Trân Van Khê & Trân Quang Hai & Trân Thi Thuy Ngoc ‎- Improvisation Rythmique Au Trông Nhac Lê [Ocora - 1973]
31. Pascal Battus ‎– Percussion Verticale [Herbal International, 2011]
32. Pascal Battus, Alfredo Costa Monteiro - Untitled (taken from “Ductile”) [A Question Of Re-Entry - 2008]
33. Utah Kawasaki - Window [Zero Gravity - 1996]
34. Pascal Battus - Bouteille Magnétique [Herbal International - 2011]

Links: website - soundcloud - discogs