Belgian label Stroom has devoted itself to the grace of the obscure. Whether unearthing precious vinyl gems from the late 20th century or continuing traditions like the alternative eighties blueprint of Brussels label Crammed Discs, the results are reliably strange and often fundamentally friendly. Though in a rather reserved way. Musician Baptiste Martin, who releases under the name Les Halles, is no exception. His current album Original Spirit emerged as a response to psychotic shock and his stay in psychiatric care. You don’t need to know this while listening to the cassette.
Since Martin draws the connection between personal distress and music himself, there’s no harm in mentioning it. While there are hints of eerily confusing soundscapes, particularly at the start, most of the eight tracks move with ambient’s calm composure. Less cloud formations than nostalgic reverberations, condensing from »real« instruments like piano, flute or mbira into harmonically heterogeneous loop structures. Small irritations like stuttering tones included. A lovely idea would be to play the album to others and only reveal its backstory afterwards. Then you can still contemplate the boundary between normality and psychological suffering. And what of that in-between space can be found in the sounds of Les Halles.Retry
Original Spirit
