3 out of 5

Label: Astral Spirits / Monofonus Press

Produced by: ?

An interesting mix of ambient experimentalism and minimalist cut-ups – yeah, that’s my best approximation – Charles Barabé’s De la fragilité takes a small pile of kitchen sink sounds and smooths them into an equally angsty and delicate set of “Movements.” The instrumentation is somewhere between classical piano and electronic plunkings and acoustic-electro organic effects, akin to Amon Tobin’s ISAM-era works.

Tobin is a great touchpoint for the middle movements on this set, as Barabé employs a similar sense of stutter-step composition. But approaching from a world of cassette music creators, Barabé’s intent is likely different from Amon’s grounding in club and dance music; we’re leaning very much on the ‘experimental’ tag added above, making these movements surely sonically intriguing, but a bit shattering of immersion. They’re also much more minimalist than Tobin, though no less complex in their own way, cycling through De la fragilité’s set of noises and reconfiguring in more passive or aggressive ways.

The bookend movements, meanwhile, are somewhere between I Care… and Ambient Works II Aphex Twin, taking the former’s harshness and the latter’s impressionistic soundscapes. (Though, again, I don’t mean to imply that De la fragilité is electronic music, or even an RIYL for Aphex or Tobin – just that there are notes and emotions that immediately drew these artists to mind.) Movement I / Movement VI are restless, breathless things, pinging between scrapes and sharp notes, but also paced and drawn out to suggest sinking into this restlessness. These tracks cast spells that provide a nice buffer for the more broken up middle, and allow the album to linger in one’s thoughts.