Tomoko Sauvage & Gilles Aubry - Apam Napat

Tomoko Sauvage & Gilles Aubry - Apam Napat


Tomoko Sauvage and Gilles Aubry are two people (girl and guy, I think) who make minimal electroacoustic music. Sauvage taps on porcelain waterbowls and Aubry does live sampling, slightly altering the sound in the process. What emerges is really cool microtonal stuff that can be both hypnotic and dizzying.

Apam Napat was improvised and recorded live in Berlin. They played 3 songs that clock in at over 40 minutes. The opening song, "Halftone Dots" is the most fast paced and seemingly structured of the bunch. The percussion is layered many times on itself and makes for a very urgent song. Not like the "I gotta piss" urgent, but like the "Shit I gotta get outta here" urgent. It's strange because it puts me at ease while making me nervous. That's definitely a feeling that makes absolutely no sense in my head.

The other two tracks, "Undercurrent" and "Apam Napat," are more sparse, almost like Sauvage and Aubry originally made freaky free folk but wanted to be closer to the Earth by making music with waterbowls. There are times when I'm listening to Apam Napat and I think to myself, someone probably thinks I installed a bunch of wind chimes in my apartment. Of course I mean that in the nicest way possible. I like wind chimes. And I like this record so everything should be OK.

Apam Napat is available as a free download from the netlabel Musica Excentrica. Do it now. Do it here.