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CD
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FTR 792CD
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"What a pleasure it is to hear this new album from France's Jean-Baptiste Favory, long-distance associate of Los Lichis, presenter of France's longest running avant garde radio show (Epsilonia), and a goddamn great musician. I Was Thinking is the solo third album we've done with J-B (preceded by Things Under (FTR 333LP, 2017) and Ciels (FTR 703CD, 2023)), and we think it's the most varied and fascinating one yet. Using guitars, keyboards and electronics, Favory explores the edges between avant-rock, experimental composition and free form madness, in all their dark glory. The tracks here rarely follow merely one or another of these threads. They tend to careen wildly through all of them in sequence or even simultaneously. For example, the title track opens with a crackling field recording of frogs peeping in vernal pools, accompanied by guitar playing whose lines are as abstract as they are genteel. Slowly everything gets swamped in surface noise, stuttering electronic waves and pulses until the whole scene fades out in smoke. But (today anyway) my faves tracks are an odd couple. 'The Seasick Sailor' is a primarily electronic composition, which starts with what sounds like a cold wind blowing straight up Popeye's ass, forcing him into a position that allows Bluto to give him an Indian Ropeburn. None of this is explicit, of course, but how else could we interpret such sounds? On a completely different note, 'Under Things' begins with J-B playing acoustic guitar in a yearn-drenched neo-folk style. Eventually swirling layers of organ drone start to cover everything and the track draws to a sweetly shuddering close. And these are but two of the ten tracks, none of which makes much effort to ape that which came before. I Was Thinking offers listeners a goddamn smorgasbord of sounds, as brilliantly arcane as any you are likely to find this year, or any year. We suggest you play it often and with gusto." --Byron Coley
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CD
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FTR 703CD
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"It is our honor to present the seventh album by French composer Jean-Baptiste Favory, whose work we first encountered while reissuing a record with the Mexican art collective, Los Lichis. J-B made an annual trip to Mexico to participate in Los Lichis' musical and visual anarchy -- Dog (FTR 229LP, 2016), and Savage Lichis Religion: El Ultimo Grito with Pakito Bolino (FTR 354LP, 2018) -- and was considered a full member of this estimable outfit. We soon discovered he was also the France's long-running experimental radio show Epsilonia, as well as an exciting solo musician. This led to us releasing his wonderful 2017 LP, Things Under: Compositions for Guitars and Electronics (FTR 333LP). Favory's main interest remains in electronics composition, so the next project he offered us was Ciels -- six gorgeous synthesizer pieces, written and played on a variety of instruments. The title track was created on a 1981 PPG Wave 2, which is one of the earliest digital synths, and has a 'metallic and shiny' sound, that was used to make a lot of '80s synth-wave music. Under Favory's touch, it assumes a spacy, pulsating attitude more akin to mid-period Heldon than A-ha. 'The Naked Now' was done on a UNISONO synth with Max-MSP software. Its many layers of action run at a variety of speeds and display multifarious textures. There is a kind of slickness underlying the basic sounds, but they're all handled in weird ways, with the output recorded via microphone off a guitar amp, so the smooth individual threads are woven into rough aural burlap. There's a slinky Eastern feel to the music at times, but the small sections into which the piece is divided are highly variant. 'Time on Time' was written and played on Eliane Radigue's 1971 ARP 2500 during a two-week residency at Paris's Groupe Recherches Musicale. This piece revolves around chiming tone sequences and the moist sorts of edits one associates with word-based assemblages and gently slurped pulses. It moves through the air like a spice worm looking for an angry fix. 'Love Structure' uses a 1972 AKS synth from EMS, which was popular with rock dudes for its rough, straight sounds. Typically Favory bends the poor machine to his will, conjuring up a weightless episode of heavy kosmiche space rotation. There are a couple other tracks, which I will leave you to discover yourselves. J-B even pulls his guitar out for a bit, but you'll have to figure out where that happens. I don't wanna spoil the surprise." --Byron Coley, 2022
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LP
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FTR 333LP
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"Because we are heathens, we first heard about J-B Favory when we reissued Los Lichis' incredible 2LP set, Dog (FTR 229LP, 2016). Favory was the one non-Mexican member of the ensemble, traveling once a year (or so) to collude with the insane artists of Los Lichis. Had we been less dim, we would have known Favory was an avant composer of note, having served as an assistant to Luc Ferrari and Gavin Bryars, before setting off on his own musique concrete path. He is also the co-host of the longest-running experimental music radio show, Epsilonia (on the anarchist Radio Libertaire), and a guy whose recordings are well loved by fanciers of the avant. That said, Favory has never had a solo LP (despite a number of CDs), so when he sent us some of his new work, we jumped on it. Things Under is one of the most mesmerizing blends of guitar and electronics we've heard in years. Favory's approach to strings ranges from the idyllic to something very much like the Machine Guitars (1982) of Remko Scha. The way he collages these sounds into electronics is spectacular. Often, in similarly intended projects, there's a friction in the shift between guitar and electronics. The elements can feel like worlds apart. But not here. Like some of Manuel Göttsching's best solo recordings, the two sonic globes meet without colliding. Their molecules and atoms just slip into and through each other. It's a total gas. And often difficult to figure out whether a specific sonic event is generated by guitar or electronics. Been listening to this for days and it still sounds a great and mysterious as it did when I first threw it on. A stone keeper." --Byron Coley, 2017 Edition of 300.
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