Centr.Contr.Intern. Strings Of Consciousness : Our Moon Is Full (F/UK/US,2007)***°
String Of Consciousness for me has some elements that fit in with the times. A first sort of significance in their group’s name for me is their awareness of the new scenes with all the good contacts, which gave this, now also international, group, a sort of awareness, like guided by some business cooperation...
The founding members had some time worked with two distinctive French independent labels, like Pandemonium (first home of Cerberus Shoal, Guape,..) and BiP_HOp (Erik Friedlander, Rothko,..). While thus living on the top of their sensitive nerves, seeing the more valuable "oil sources" in the post-rock underground waters flooding above the avarage like the valuable parts, they had also experienced some of the different new music possibilities in that field.
Especially he first couple of tracks on their CD makes me similarly conscious of how quickly the modern times evolved and have added so many new forms of expressions and styles in music. It is as if the group bring this compilation of ideas, also like in a string of consciousness, together, and connect this into one power and identity, which, like the logo of the group contains some confusing strings and energies with twists and turns and contrasting directions, and lots of different sounds, but also still hold together with a feeling for how this also could belong together in a natural, even rather complex way when you look into the details (there are no less than 9 people participating!).
A third and last association which makes their name so fit well can be noticed in the later tracks especially, because they are more distinctive of words with music. All tracks have in fact spoken word by an assimilation of many separate guest vocalists, some of which are relatively well known (J.G.Thirlwell (Foetus/Steroid Maximus), Barry Adamson, Eugene Robinson (Oxbow), Scott McCloud (Girls Against Boys), Pete Simonelli (Enablers), Black Sifichi and Lisa Smith-Klossner). These vocalists give extra expression with a literary association (perhaps just a bit inspired by the idea of the dry and intellectual cynical readings by W.S.Borroughs more than once put on music). Some of these tracks more clearly add lush and moody jazz to the mixture of new post-rock ideas, a bit of chamber arrangements and so on.
With the first listen, this album sounds often a bit dry and musically at times slightly confusing, and a bit away from real emotional involvement in the need to express all this, but this is only a first impression.
Strings Of Consciousness are : Raphaelle Rinaudo (harp), Andy Diagram (trumpet / electronics), Nicolas Dick (guitars), Abdenor Natouri (double bass), Perceval Bellone (saxophone, Tibetan bowls, flute, piano), Hervé Vincenti (guitar/laptop), Philippe Petit (Theremin/laptop/turntables), Alison Chesley (cello), Stefano Tedesco (vibraphone).
The group cooperated live before with Bob Mould, The Sea and Cake, Frank Black, Robert Wyatt, Soft Machine, David Thomas/Pere Ubu, Spaceheads & the Deviationists.
