L’Ombre de la Bête

François Robin has been exploring electro-acoustic sounds for nearly 15 years. While his is a multi-instrumentalist, his instrument of choice is the veuze (Breton bagpipes). Robin says, ‘my instrument is animal. Everything in it evokes animality: its shape, its sounds… An instrument… who breathes, blows, screams, moans.’

With L’Ombre de la Bête (Shadow of the Beast), Robin entrusted the electro-acoustic treatment to Nantes artist and music composer Mathias Delplanque. Together, the two create an immersive music of cinematic proportions with Robin allowing his instruments (veuzes, Armenian duduk, mizmar and violin) to explore the outer realms of imagination with Delplanque guiding, framing and stretching the journey. The results are abandoned flirtings with minimalist, ambient, drone, krautrock sounds amalgamated with traditional music. The album offers a unique atmosphere that conjures storms, illuminates movement and summons an enveloping euphoria. It playfully draws you in with ‘Sous le Cuir’ and builds with the synth heavy bass and violin plucking of ‘Perdu’. ‘Dans l’Ombre’ hears the veuze beast released before a moment of contemplation with ‘Le Puits’. Then the drones and pipes of ‘L’Homme à Tête de Cheval’ arrive. The album finishes with a nod to tradition in ‘Fin de Règne’.