motel de moka

[As a follower of his work, I'm delighted to start the guest list project with a post from Olivier Alary, the electronic wizard behind the Ensemble moniker. After his stunning debut "Sketch Proposals" and his collaborations with Björk on the best song on Medulla and Vespertine, Olivier has finally released his first major work for five years, a beautiful self-titled LP on Fatcat Records, counting with the collaboration of monolithic figures of the experimental pop frontstage, Lou Barlow and Chan Marshall, for a remarkable, high-class, organic integration of static folk and subdued electronica. Today Olivier is here to tell us about some of his favorite tunes. Please give him a very warm welcome.]

Can - vitamin C
(from Ege Bamyasi)

I discovered Can when I was pretty young, right after my punk/no wave days, ege bamyasi is still pretty important to me.
I have a weird love/hate relationship with this song. I really love the groove, the rhythmical relationship between the instrumentation, the melody, and the vibe, but the lyrics are absolutely terrible, which makes the song even more special. It makes it even more human.

Arvo Part - Silentium: Senza moto
(from Tabula Rasa)

There’s a beautiful german word “weltschmerz”, which means “world sorrow”, you can apply this adjective to art and music, and I feel that Part’s work has this quality; a direct emotional and mystical force.I cannot listen to his work very often, but everytime I do so, I always experience profound emotions.
I love the use of prepared piano in this song and the clarity of the orchestral textures, it’s simple but very deep.

Pharoah Sanders - Red, black and green
(from Thembi)

Gorgeous and immersive wall of sound, Pharoah Sanders is the master of beautiful and sensual cacophony.
I love the fact that I always lose track of time when I listen to his work, how it can be pretty harsh but then soothing. There’s a fine balance between noise and melody but I find that he always manages to figure out when to take you somewhere else right before you’re too lost in his grandiose musical mess.

Brigitte Fontaine - il se passe des choses
(from Brigitte Fontaine est folle)

A very elegant and decadent song with amazing lyrics. The song is about her and how she would rather stay in bed drinking whiskey than to live some sort of life outside, or hear about what’s happening beyond her apartment.
Brigitte Fontaine is one of the most talented french singers of the sixties, she has an edge that no one else had. Her lyrics are always very well written, funny, clever, surreal and bleak at the same time. Very rare. The orchestration of this song is amazing, very flowing, metaphoric but not too obvious.

Simon Diaz - Tonada de luna llena
(from Tonadas)

A traditional tonada from the Venezuelan and Colombian savannas. I discovered this song a couple of years ago on French radio, as soon as I heard it, I thought that it was extremely precious, it’s a pure jewel of a song. I love the simplicity of the lyrics and chord progression, the melody is simply stunning. Simon Diaz’s performance is fragile and deep, there’s an incredible but beautiful tension in this song.