Label: Recital – R108
Format: Vinyl, LP, Limited Edition
Country: US
Released: 13 Sept 2024
Genre: Electronic, Classical
Style: Modern, Experimental
Spell-binding outsider collage works from the sainted Recital label presenting the debut release of enigmatic Guadeloupe-born artist Allan Gilbert Balon. An absolutely stunner.
Recital, more than anyone, have the ability of uniting the worlds of academia, institution and counter-culture. Balon appears to be ostensibly a ‘serious’ artist, having exhibited MoMA PS1 in 2022, yet The Magnesia Suite gives a brief peek into a riveting world that seems untethered to any establishment. It’s an unconventional sound assemblage that unfolds in multiple directions, anchored mainly by Balon’s predominant practice as a pianist, but also delicately embracing found-sound, ramshackle percussion and the human voice. In the best possible way, we’re instantly reminded of Lambkin’s holy Salmon Run LP, in the sense of just being part of this beautifully understated journey through sound where different and often totally juxtaposition elements peek through on each listen. The pacing is slow. Tinkering milk-bottle melodies, hisses of radio static, curdling numbers stations broadcasting, intimate Mandarin snippets, blunted soprano sax and the omnipresent buzz of the outside world. But it’s all wonderfully arranged around the gentle intimate plod of the piano. There’s a genuine sort of excitement in the air here of discovering something so incredible, humble yet unobtrusive after somewhat of a drought the past few months, from a brand new artist no less. Those who regularly find themselves regularly going back that Matthew Sullivan LP (of Zen Cab cassette on Regional Bears), Alvin Curran’s staple collages, Salenta + Topu, or even the recent Mashu Hayasaka LP we put out will find themselves easily lost in this one. Firm highlight of the year! (Mint / New - with booklet)
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Recital is honored to publish composer Allan Gilbert Balon’s first full-length LP. Born 1986 in Les Abymes on the island of Guadeloupe, Balon is an artist (exhibiting at MoMA PS1 in 2022) who publishes beautiful handmade books and audio on XYÄ Edition run with Uta Guan Hyë in Créteil, France where he now resides.
The Magnesia Suite harbors an unhurried, coastal tranquility that flows lucidly as an album. Though prominently a pianist, a breadth of Balon’s musical spheres are visited on this record. Disparate elements of percussion, reeds, organ, voice, and tape recordings are all cast together. Each slowly excavated, surveyed and then set away.
“Stella Maris” opens with an organ and voice procession in the vein of a Charlemagne Palestine singing piece. “Lustras” is a patchwork of various tape captures (a la Alvin Curran, Rip Hayman, or André Thomkins); piano clusters dredge into xylophone by night with cicadas swimming in radio transmissions. First hearing the track “Pleuro Delez Waltz” is what made me approach Allan about making an album for Recital. The proximity of the voices against the small percussions, all laced with Balon’s piano stylings. I’ve not really heard anything like it before. The album ends with “Ogadia,” a gentle piano march with soprano saxophone and electronics. Feels to me like a Dave Burrell-infused rag played slowly, beautifully resolving the outsider-jazz-sound-art-poetry-collages of The Magnesia Suite.
The LP includes a booklet of quiet texts and beautiful graphic scores.
Tracklist
A1 Stella Maris 7:12
A2 Lustras 10:34
B1 Pleuro Delez Waltz 4:39
B2 S.O.S. Dolphin Bay Club 4:45
B3 Ogadia 8:42
