L 'Ocelle Mare / Le Ton Mité

Wednesday, 14 March, 2007 - 23:00

L 'Ocelle Mare / Le Ton Mité

Thomas Bonvalet

L'OCELLE MARE (F)

Thomas Bonvalet used to play amplified nylon strings guitar in a duet called CHEVAL DE FRISE (with the drummer vincent Beysselance ). At their beginning they were often compared to bands like Gastr DEL SOL or DON CABALLERO. Their first Album came out at the fall of 2000 on the French label SONORE (re-released later on SICKROOM RECORDS). Then they started to tour all around Europe and Scandinavia, playing in all kinds of networks. In 2002 they recorded "fresques sur les parois secrètes du crâne" (released on RUMINANCE and in the USA on FRENETIC RECORDS). They've been touring more and more after that and after their first US tour with our friends GORGE TRIO (summer 2004) the band broke up. A last EP ("la lame du Mat") recorded during that tour by Jay Pellicci (Deerhoof, Erase Errata, 31 Knots....) has been released on RUMINANCE on CD and on vynil on the Czech label MINORITY RECORDS.

 

 

After a year of focusing on collaborations (Radikal Satan, Austin Townsend...both on the Bordeaux based DIY label "les potagers natures"), Thomas started to tour solo as L'Ocelle Mare in september 2005 (playing nylon strings guitar,six strings banjo, harmonica and percussions), opening shows for his friends DEERHOOF (on KILL ROCK STARS) in the USA, playing in Europe with LE TON MIté and label mates CHEVREUIL and recently touring in Israel. His first solo album, recorded in caves, woods, ruins and churches in his native country side ("la Dordogne", in the south west of France) in july 2006, is going to be released on RUMINANCE the 15th of January.

 

 

"a gangly fellow who played intricate, springloaded pieces on an acoustic guitar. His whole body seemed to tense up, coiled around his guitar, while his face contorted to scrutinize the movements of his fingers, sometimes playing at breakneck speed, sometimes plucking strings for an eerie, japonesque effect. He ended every song abruptly, mouthed inaudible thanks, and nodded shyly before quietly beginning the next. At one point, a rattling gourd served as a guitar pick and a microphone lay between his feet to catch the frantic rythms he would tap out on the floor."
January 27, 2006 in the "Bostonist"
http://www.myspace.com/ocellemare

LE TON MITé (F)
www.myspace.com/letonmite
www.zicmuse.com

BREEZY DAYS BAND (USA)
"We find out what we are doing by doing it. Presently we think of telling a story by building piles of qualities/adjectives. We think of "degree of articulation/coherence/crystalinity" as the major parameter by which we separate into oppositions, cognize our activity and tell stories. We hear oppositions in degree of coherence in our sound. In our instrumentation: unison guitars play against a set of drums. Guitars are regularised repetitions of a sounding element and follow a crystaline lattice formation in their gridded playing surface. Drums are irregular constellations of sounding elements without fixed or codified interelations. We try to play our instruments to bring out these qualities. Our tunes range and separate along the regularity parameter by combining recieved/intuitive music with calculated material; floating crystals in soup. We try to continue these ideas at every level of observation that we can think of (within the timbres of the guitars, within the timbres of the drums, the forms of our sets, in our visual presentation, our typography, etc.)."

 

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