Sylvain Chauveau/Stephan Mathieu - Palimpsest

[inkinthewell]

http://minorityrecords.com/mailorder/schwebung/SCHW01/
Doesn't Sylvain Chauveau's voice resemble Blemish-era David Sylvian?
The tracks sound good, anyway.

[kitaj]

..and he sings "I remember entering you", as well. this man has no shame.
quite apart from the fact that I would beat up every single Sylvian imitator ever, I can't stand Chauveau. I saw him in concert once at the Union Chapel and I was astonished at the banality of his piano pieces and Depeche Mode covers he sang. lifeless, bloodless, purposeless, but po-facedly serious. amateurishness incarnate. I first picked up a cd of his based on a recommendation by no other than Sakamoto, and I was beyond puzzled upon listening. that whole 'new classical' genre his music gets put in is the New Age of the 00's, although with critics' cred. and the new generation of 'indie hipster' listeners love it, too.

please inkinthewell, don't take this as an attack I'm rarely irritated to this degree, but this guy and his ilk do it for me.

[digimarsh]

This is guy is just the worst, it's a blatant copy of some of David's work/ideas .The voice the soundscapes are all far to familiar. Listen up Do something ORIGINAL

[baht habit]

The imitation sounds quite shameless. I am not sure how any self respecting artist could allow themselves to drift that far away from expressing any shred of originality.
Yet perhaps we shouldn't place all of our disgust simply on the guy doing vocals?...for I noticed that in addition to Mathieu being solely responsible for supplying music, there is a gentleman named Bill Callahan who appears to be solely responsible for the lyrics. So the pure imitation is a joint effort - the three of them deserve an equal amount of the blame, wouldn't you think?

[digimarsh]

yes i agree, they all share responsibility for this shameless imitation then.

[inkinthewell]

I think baht and digimarsh are taking this too far. Chauveau is evidently "borrowing" David Sylvian's vocal style, and that's the main reason I posted the link. But from there to blaming Stephan Mathieu and Bill Callahan, of all people, is way too much. It is clear from the preceding 3 comments that they have not gone deeper than the info on the page i linked, so let me add this, from Mathieu's label website:
"Sylvain and I started discussing an instrumental album when we met for the first time in 2009. During 2010 I made recordings for this project, using the instruments I’m having in the house – a piano, spinet, Farfisa organ, zither, french horn, cymbals, as well as recordings of a viol quartet I had written in 2008. This material was arranged and reprocessed then, resulting in my usual abstract soundscapes. To my surprise, once Sylvain heard the tracks he came up with the proposal to add lyrics of some of Bill Callahan’s classic Smog songs instead of further instrumental voices.
I’m still amazed by how he had heard this potential in the pieces, how he placed Bill’s lyrics there, especially since my original material is used for the album as is, without further changes or editing. It is exciting for me to hear my sound in this context, the way how things suddenly start to fall into place. Instead of being classic cover versions, Palimpsest is much more rooted in the tradition of the exquisite corpse."

By the way, I still think the music is good.
And as for "I remember entering you", it's taken from the song "Your Wedding", written by Callahan and recorded by Smog in 1993. I'm no good at remembering lyrics, so I failed to make a connection to DS songs.

[kitaj]

And as for "I remember entering you", it's taken from the song "Your Wedding", written by Callahan and recorded by Smog in 1993. I'm no good at remembering lyrics, so I failed to make a connection to DS songs.

you're right. Chauveau's singing is so DS-like I was instantly remembered of Sylvian's beginning to 'Blemish' ('I fall outside of her').
be as it may, I continue not being able to stand Chauveau. he's an instant turn-off for me, for the reasons I stated above.

[inkinthewell]

Chauveau's singing is so DS-like I was instantly remembered of Sylvian's beginning to 'Blemish' ('I fall outside of her').

As the connection with Blemish is undeniable, probably the similarity between the lyrics is not accidental.

be as it may, I continue not being able to stand Chauveau. he's an instant turn-off for me, for the reasons I stated above.

I would have really loved to have witnessed your reaction at his Union Chapel gig.

[Nicrobliz]

I'm not the biggest fan of Sylvain Chauveau but I still think 'Nocturne Impalpable' is a great album. Everything else has been underwhelming and a part of my feels that he has failed to build upon the critical success of that album effectively. Since then, a slew of post-rock outfits have emerged and superseded his style. A wasted opportunity, IMHO.

[Nicrobliz]

I've just been listening to 'The Unbroken Line' from his 'Singular Forms (Sometimes Repeated)' album...

Oh, my God!!! It's a 'Blemish'-esque rip-off!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4kqPogVwTs

[kitaj]

I would have really loved to have witnessed your reaction at his Union Chapel gig.

I was with a friend I got to know just before the concert, so I stayed quiet, not wanting to ruin her enjoyment. the audience were 90% young London indie hipsters, skinny trousers, big glasses and all. they praised SC and Peter Broderick (sharing the bill) as if they were the second coming. I felt a timely pang of generational gap inside and duly proceeded to think the new world was crazy.