“Earth Story” is the long awaited follow-up to the highly acclaimed album “Terra Incognita”. Temps Perdu? yet again display all the vigour and mysterious nuances so evident on “Terra Incognita” and waits your exploration. This is daring electronics building from a tranquil silence to a tension filled void. A wide variety of electronic and ethnic instruments color the landscape. Hypnotic tribal percussion rhythms are an important part of the Temps Perdu? sound, and are used on 5 of the album’s 6 tracks. The album also features flowing masses of shifting, spacey, multi-layered synths, surreal ambient soundscapes and loops. |
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| Temps Perdu? is: Catherine Ledit: Synthesizers, northern sonoran dreampipe, loops, flutes, Mexican rainmaker, distant voice, rattles, zither. Dirk Grützmann: Synthesizers, loops, samples, sequencers, grooves, flutes, ocarinas, digital audio processors. All music composed and performed by Temps Perdu? between 1996-2000. All loop and sample food created by Temps Perdu?. Photographs taken by Stefano Gentile and Dirk Grützmann on Lanzarote and Tenerife islands. Click here to get your copy now!. |
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| "Earth Story" is the first release from Temps Perdu? since 1996. This tribal ambient duo - Dirk Grutzman and Catherine Ledit - has long been known for their scorching desert ambience. This album is no exception! From the opening strains of "Woven Spirit" to the ends of "Eclipse," Dirk and Catherine create and embrace a dense terrestrial soundscape surrounded by primal rhythms. The soundscape also delves beneath the surface. "Subterranean Sources" is an eerie and melodic composition that speaks of safety and danger in the same breath. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| That kind of juxtaposition dominates the entire CD. The percussion is ominous. The drones are sinister. The sparse melodies are minimalist and light. The album addresses the beauty and the dangers of the barren desert. The dense soundscape brings the beauty of the desert to life! The dark undertones remind us of the intrinsic dangers of heat and isolation. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| I was immediately struck by the timeliness of this landmark release. Coming on the heels of Vidna Obmana's Subterranean Collective" and "Contemporary Nocturne," Steve Roach's "Early Man" and "Serpent's Lair" (with Byron Metcalf) and "The Inexplicable" by Robert Carty, this CD is a perfect compliment to the recent spate of tribal primal creations in the genre. The compliment is dynamic! This release joins Vidna's as a frontrunner for the best of y2k+1! | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Reviewed by Jim Brenholts (http://www.ambientvisions.com/brenholts.htm), author of "Tracks Across the Universe: A Chronology of Ambient and Electronic Music" due for publication in May, 2001 2/18/2001 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| „Earth Story“ Review im BLACK Magazin, Ausgabe 23 (!), Frühjahr 2001: | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Catherine Ledit-Grützmann und Dirk Grützmann gehören sicherlich neben MATHIAS GRASSOW und AMIR BAGHIRI zu den wichtigsten Ambient-Künstlern hier in Deutschland. Schon 1992 sorgte das Düsseldorfer Duo, welches sich in den letzten Jahren eine Babypause gegönnt hat, mit seinem Debut-Album „Athanor“ für Fuore. Auf dem eigenen Label TIMEBASE präsentierte man mit den Compilations „Twilight Earth“ und „Twilight Earth – second soirée“ internationale Künstler aus dem Dark-Ambient-Bereich und veröffentlichte 1995 mit „Terra Incognita“ seinen zweiten Longplayer. Als letztes Lebenszeichen gab’s dann eine 3“ MCD („The Day the Earth melted“) für das italienische Label Amplexus“. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| „Doch so richtig zurückgezogen haben sich Catherine und Dirk anscheinend nie. Zwischen 1996 und 2000 entstanden die Aufnahmen für „Earth Story“, die ganz deutlich zeigen, daß TEMPS PERDU? lebendiger denn je sind. Die 6 Tracks des neuen Albums bestechen vor allem durch eine unglaubliche Intensität, die daher rührt, daß Catherine und Dirk viel Kraft und Energie in die von ihnen erzeugten Klangcollagen einfließen lassen. Vor dem geistigen Auge entstehen Bilder bizzarer, aber auch wunderschöner Landschaften und während Dirk sich eher für die elektronische Umsetzung mit Synthesizern, Sequencern und anderen Gerätschaften verantwortlich zeichnet, sorgt Catherine mit natürlichen Instrumenten (Rainmaker, Flöten, Rasseln, Zither und der Northern Sonoran Dreampipe) dafür, daß das Dargebotene auch wirklich lebendig klingt“. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| „Die Entstehung der Welt läßt sich wohl kaum besser musikalisch umsetzten und während uns die Reise durch heiße Wüsten, karge Berglandschaften, dichte Dschungel, tiefe Meere und faszinierende Orte führt, bekommt man ein gutes Gefühl dafür, welche Eindrücke Catherine und Dirk in ihren Herzen behalten haben“. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| „Earth Story“ ist ein musikalisches Kleinod, ein Juwel, das in keiner guten Sammlung fehlen sollte und nahtlos an die vorangegangenen Veröffentlichungen von TEMPS PERDU? anknüpft“. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| „Meine Wertung: 10 Volle Punkte!“ (Thomas Wacker, Chefredakteur BLACK) http://come.to/blackmagazin/ | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Review by Andy G. (CD Services, Dundee): | ||||||||||||||||||||
| TEMPS PERDU: Earth Story | ||||||||||||||||||||
| One of the finest and most underrated bands on the still-thriving ambient scene with their third full-length album and the first for a year or two. What they have produced on this new album is a series of tracks between six and nineteen minutes in length, that provide every facet of what makes quality real ambient music such a treat. There are rhythms at one end, space synths at the other, and a world of synth layers, textures, melodies and atmospheres in between. Take the opening nineteen minute track - it is propelled by a shuffling bed of tabla and exotic drum rhythms, while some of the most gorgeous soundscapes soar and dive overhead like accelerated cloud movements, and all the time haunting backdrops, swooping synth motifs and eerie space layers. The effect is like a cross between Steve Roach and Jon Hassell and the result is an astoundingly busy yet beautifully reflective epic, a whole new musical world opening up especially for you to enjoy. The thirteen minute 'The Patterened Flow' lets go of the rhythms and comes up with a flowing river of synth layers, before a slow, deep percussion rhythm wells up from the bottom to give the composition the necessary solid feel that puts it up there with the best that someone like Roach in his more rhythmic moods, has to offer, and anyone into the Roach music that combines percussive and cosmic music, will absolutely love this track as it cruises effeortlessly along a pre-destined trail towards a light that shines so bright. In assorted settings, with vari-paced rhythms and lush multi-layered synth surrounds, so continues a sea of music that washes on the shores of your mental fibres with a hidden eternal strength, the musical equivalent of tidal force on a sunny day. Superb stuff and their finest to date. |
