[CP 304 CD] Anne Ben Hammou, Charles Clapaud, Monique Frapat; L'Oreille En Colimaçon, L'Arbre A Son, L'Aventure D'Un Son [C66]

June 2024; The second in the fledgling "Tape" series here is a replica edition around an undated (early) 1980s affair issued by Radio France / France Music & consisting of a wild trilogy of Radio-Art pieces ("The Spiral Ear", "The Sound Tree", & "The Adventure of a Sound") put together by Composers Anne Ben Hammou, Monique Frapat, & Charles Clapaud.

Consisting of sporadic spoken interjections/introductions/interruptions (reminiscent of the Sturm-und-Drang recitatif of Jean Painlevé 1967 cultural centrepiece "Les amours de la pieuvre") that repeatedly lead into a quite unusual array of laminar Tape-Studio techniques that defy any sort of easy classification, the music here is equal parts David Tudor/Bebe Barron -esque circuit-failure, Dockstader-y FM carrier wave hysteresis, & Schaeffer/Philippot -lineage year-zero Concrète techniques.

The increasingly sporadic narrative elements (framing the music "Pour Enfants De 4 a 7 Ans" - or, "for 4-7 year old children", somewhat amazingly) give way to some of the more gorgeous, abstract Electronic Miniatures. Having only heard a little bit of Clapaud's music over the years, I can hear the tell-tale signs of his Compositional style (if the piece "Ruptures" on the recent GRM "Traces Three" compilation is anything to go by).