Ciutats, for all of the meticulous composition that went into its production, has the spirit of station-surfing as you cruise around on a lazy afternoon. Lès Modernos (Noiseau sound artist and DJ Loïc Ponceau) makes use of an eclectic range of source material for this short suite, each piece a loosely assembled skeleton of soulful loops, spectral dissections, and rebellious harmonies. “Lacques 1” immediately introduces the fleeting, fragile intrigue that drives the brief collages, its fractured rearrangement of a darkly dramatic folk song echoing the haunting palette of Arca’s Entrañas. The various loop fragments have both the stuttering physicality of analog tape and the freedom of digital decontextualization, darting around each other in circles and zigzags, a waltzing sonic shadow-play. “Soleil pour toi” and “Habitat 1” are more overtly synthetic tracks, finding uncanny beauty in the contrast between dusty, delicate melodies and processed vocal samples. The frame narrative of an aimless drive is ever present in the way some sounds are heard directly and others seem to be playing from the dashboard speakers as we sit in the backseat, the notes struggling to slip through despite an imperfectly tuned radio dial. Everything—especially the abstract patchwork of “Au cabanyal”—leads up to “Lacques 2,” a lazy whirlpool of sublime, surreal murk that beckons you to submerge yourself in its humid embrace.
Noise Not Music 