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My North Eye I

by My North Eye

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Butterfly 01:58
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Lullaby 05:22
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Walk 02:47
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about

12'Vinyle (send a message)

handmade cd-r on www.reverbworship.com


(ReverbWorship RW 254)


" Reverb Worship presents the debut album by My North Eye. A musical project from french based musician yann Lafosse, originally member of the indie band dirge. First discussions concerning the album started 18 months or so ago via email after I picked a promo copy of a dirge cd. The cd had yann'as address written on the cover. Yann told me " dirge is no more but you will love my new folk based project ". He describes his music as dark folk from Rouen. In fact if you listen to this album you will be reminded of Red House painters and early Smog. Amazingly the record was recorded in one day with guitars, harmonium and minimum precussion. This is a stunning downbeat and very low key slow burner which seeps into your memory cells. The covers are printed onto coated blind embossed white card. Available in an edition of 50 hand-numbered copies " ( roger Linney, reverb worship )


Yann Lafosse : Voice / Guitars / Harmonium
Recorded in a day on february 27th 2013 by David Fontaine
Mixed by David Fontaine
Mastered by Franck Mallet @les docks, studio, LH

Picture taken by Clément Giraud

« Après un 7″ qui nous avait tapés dans les oreilles, Yann Lafosse (ex Dirge) revient avec son premier album. Trois morceaux sont disponibles sur son bandcamp, je vous conseille d’y aller vite. C’est folk, post rock ou ce que vous voulez mais c’est surtout d’une beauté et d’une sensibilité rare que n’aurait pas renié Vic Chesnutt. Grande classe ! » ( Lester Brome Kerozene / K-fuel, Rennes )

Il y a toujours dans la musique de Yann Lafosse, depuis qu’on la connaît, quelque chose de lancinant, comme une voix plaintive qui accompagne son chant : le violoncelle chez feu-Dirge (réécouter l’album posthume « Where (No One Has a Name) ») , ou le violon dans la première version de My North Eye (« Gospel 7 ep »). Entre temps, les compagnons de route se sont évanouis dans la nature et Yann a trouvé un nouvel ami : l’harmonium. Comme on pouvait s’en douter, ça n’égaie pas notre affaire car ce « My North Eye LP », premier long donc, est noir, noir, noir. Noire, la pochette, noirs les textes : c’est un disque de deuil, de solitude, de douleur. Il y a bien quelques tentatives d’éclaircies, une berceuse, « Lullaby », en fin de face A, ou le « Wade in the Water », en ouverture bluesy et graisseuse, braise ardente au milieu des cendres. Partout ailleurs, la plombe, insistante et persistante, comme un drone puisqu’on tourne autour de ça. « Your Pain is like a drone », pièce maîtresse, centre aspirant de l’album ressemble beaucoup à la musique sœur de « Only Lovers Left Alive ». On y retrouve le même côté baladin élisabéthain à la mode contemporaine entre John Dowland et Jozef Van Wissem, le néo-médiévalisme de Nico et forcément, un peu partout, l’ombre tutélaire de Loulou Reed. On pense bien sûr à La Monte Young mais aussi et surtout aux drones de Charlemagne Palestine et on imagine que Yann a certainement traîné ses guêtres dans l’abbatiale Saint Ouen lorsque Charlemagne a joué sur les grandes orgues du vaisseau de pierre quasi désert.
Autre point commun avec le romantique héros de « Only Lovers Left Alive », la volonté de jouer de tout, tout seul (guitares claires et dissonantes, harmonium mais aussi belles et sourdes percussions), d’assumer le poids de la peine seul. Magie de l’instant et preuve de la maîtrise de ses oeuvres, « My North Eye LP » fut enregistré en une seule journée d’avril peut-être pour conserver, ou re-trouver, un peu de fraîcheur dans ces chansons qu’on imagine longuement mûries et lentement fermentées. Le temps est loin où on cherchait encore à se joindre (« You’ve grown away from me » sur « Rebecca ») et on devient plus ronsardien au mitan de la vie (« Nothing Lasts » en conclusion). Rien ne dure, peut-être, si ce n’est un beau disque alors cueillons dès aujourd’hui les (épines des) roses de la vie en LP, CD ou téléchargement guillaume Delcourt, Popnews march 2015 )

With this deceptively low key and underground release My North Eye have arguably created a stand out psych folk masterpiece. Recorded in one day in Normandy, France in 2013, each song is a perfectly crated piece of melancholy that catches the listener firmly in its emotional grip. Essentially the work of one man, Yann Lafosse, the album affects and arrests in equal measure and proclaims the arrival of a major talent to the folk and psych scene. The album opens with a version of the gospel standard ‘Wade In The Water’, the double tracked lead vocals adding a sense of approaching dread to a backdrop of wheezing organ and gnarled distorted fuzz guitar. Sounding not unlike a demented Walkabouts, My North Eye make this track into their own apocalyptic vision. In contrast ‘Love Just Love’s harmonium and plaintive vocals are heartbreaking in their despondency and simplicity. Not a note is wasted here and the lack of over embellishment just adds to the emotional power. Similarly ‘Butterfly’ (with its repeated single drumbeat the sole backdrop to Lafosse’s vocal) is deeply engaging, reminding this listener of Black Heart Procession’s classic ‘1’ album. ‘Lullaby’s shimmering and celestial organ frames a desperate paean to the listener to ‘sleep, close your eyes’ as cosmic winds circle all around. This would have been the perfect soundtrack to the ending of Lars Von Trier's ‘Melancholia’; it is as heartrending as it is bleakly beautiful. ‘Walk’ begins with a single repeated drumbeat, a stagger of a song depicting an exhausted and worn protagonist before the defiant chorus brings a delicately picked acoustic into the frame. This is hugely affecting material and reminds one of Nick Grey’s desperate and heartworn opus ‘Thieves among Thorns’. ‘Your Pain Is like a Drone’ is an epic nine minutes of pain and sorrow; the naked harmonium emphasising the raw and stripped back emotion expressed in the song. A tense and unsettling crescendo builds as the volume grows and reverbed discordant and wracked guitar howls into the darkness. The track is physically and emotionally draining yet is utterly compulsive and mesmerizing. Fans of Michael Gira’s work with
both Swans and Angels of Light will find much to like here. 'Metonimy’ follows as the calm after the storm yet is still much wrought and greatly resigned. Indeed, the whole album begins to take on the form of a song cycle or concept and it’s not hard to imagine each of these songs being sung about the same person. Handclaps, the buzz of harmonium and shimmering strings create a melancholy sing-along as the tracks ends repeating ‘you refused to see’. It’s a curiously uplifting moment and illustrates the strong emotional palette that My North Eye are working from. ‘Nothing Lasts’ strummed doomed vision is a powerful piece of Americana; effectively the finale of the album, it offers no solace or happy ending but does provide an atmospheric and cinematic conclusion with its ringing guitars, twilight chimes and hazy strings. Make no mistake; this is a hugely accomplished album and it being the work of one man’s vision makes this all the more so. There is heartache here but also some of the most affecting and beautiful music you may ever hear. In future years this should be filed next to Peter Hammill’s ‘Over’, Smog’s ‘Red Apple Falls’ or Big Star’s ‘3rd’as one of those soundtracks to late, candlelight nights of the soul. Available now as a limited edition with splendid handmade artwork by label Reverb Worship. Essential. the active listener ( 2014 )

« on ne sort pas indemne de l’écoute de cette musique à forte intensité émotionnelle, surtout lorsque yann lafosse interprête des chanson à l’aide de son harmonium . Mais ses mélodies pleines de spleen il peut aussi les jouer avec une guitare acoustique ou même simplement une percussion accompagnant sa voix brisée. On pense à Thee silver Mt Zion qui ne décollerait jamais, à une Nico au masculin ou encore à La Monte Young qui serait accompagné d’une voix mélodique. Les plus longues virées sont les meilleures ( your pain my love is like a drone, Nothing lasts )
( Gérôme Guibert Magic ! Les activités souterraines françaises, janvier 2015 )

credits

released April 17, 2014

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My North Eye Rouen, France

autobiography - dark folk - ( repetition ) since 2006

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