Reviews

1. Beach Sloth

   Jules’ opts for a glowing ghostly aura on the dreamy realm of “Adventures & Explorations (Volume 1)”. Representing the best of what drone can do, Jules incorporates an entire history of sound within these two singular pieces, bringing classical in to further cement the sound’s emotional resonance. Full of warmth and light, there is something so soothing about the way the two tracks wash over everything. Melodically teeming with life, Jules at times recalls some of Stephen Mathieu’s equally lovely otherworldly works. Never moving too quickly, Jules allows each and every detail to become magnified in full.

   “Paris 1870. My first trip in a hot air balloon” opens up the album. Featuring elegant swells of sound that at times feels reminiscent of a gentler Stars of the Lid, the whole song works wonders as it comes in and out of focus. Evolution happens with such grace and patience that the song transforms in almost an unperceivable way. Much smaller at first “Stories of long journeys in Indochina” brings things to a satisfying conclusion. Easily the more experimental of the two pieces, Jules brings field recordings, tactile sounds, and even little piece of the Onyko music scene enters into the fray. Eventually all of this tension is released in a most fantastic way while everything transforms into a glistening sort of ambience.

   Best listened to on headphones on a sunny wintery day, Jules proves to be a deft explorer of texture and tone with the beautiful “Adventures & Explorations”.

2. Badd Press

   We’ve become accustomed to anonymity in art. As egotism has grown increasingly acceptable in popular culture, the decision to release work under a pseudonym is recognized as a progressive statement. It’s about putting the art first. In this respect, it’s a kind of selflessness that we could do with a great deal more of.

   It does beg a number of questions though. Would the work differ if it bore the artist’s name? What does its presentation gain or lose by removing identity? And the obvious: Why?

   Consciously or not, sometimes artists choose not to put their names on work because they lack the confidence to do so. That sounds unkind, but it’s true. This has both positive and negative implications. On one hand, it frees less self-assured artists to go ahead and put their work out. (Often, a good thing.) On the other hand, it’s a bit of a get-out-of-jail-free card. Releasing something under your own name is a scary, liberating exercise that is ultimately good for you.

   None of this is to be confused with artists who choose to perform under a stage name, but make no effort to conceal their identity. That’s a legitimate form of self-expression and creativity.

   Jules is a pseudonym used by an ambient music producer in Kolkata, India. Adventures & Explorations (Volume 1), released last month, is the first chapter in a project that “aims to create a mysterious and fantastic author, called Jules, who will propose to the listeners a dreaming atmosphere and persona far from reality, living in exotic and non-existent spatiotemporal dimensions,” according to the album’s notes. “Jules is the spontaneity of the imagination and storytelling.”

   Its high quality disqualifies Jules as an artist lacking in self-confidence. We are firmly in put-the-art-first territory here.

   Fittingly, the project opens with “Paris, 1870. My first trip in a hot air balloon.” That’s more than a poetic title. In September 1870, the Prussian army invaded Paris, touching off a battle that would last until the following January. The Prussians were successful in The Siege of Paris, and would go on to win the Franco-Prussian War.

   Isolated from the rest of France, Parisians used hot-air balloons to deliver mail out of the beleaguered city. The first delivery was on Sept. 23, 1870. It took three hours to deliver 276 pounds of mail to Craconville (now Le Vieil-Évreux), about 50 miles away.

   This first piece is a traditional ambient composition. Fans of the genre will love it; the 17-minute work captures what it must have been like to sail off into the peaceful sky, away from the hostility on the ground.

   Next is “Stories of long journeys in Indochina.” This is more of an electronic composition, in a mid-20th century style. Layered on top of beautiful drones, there’s a nice balance between the two.

   I asked the artist about the album’s anonymity. “Jules is an anonymous project in order to keep the listeners free to imagine the author,” they explained. “Whatever they prefer.”

   We look forward to Volume 2.

3. Chain D.L.K.

   Jules is an anonymous project from India which describes himself as "the spontaneity of the imagination and storytelling"; apart from the consideration that every storytelling has to be mediated by conscious (re)construction, so, it's not properly spontaneous, the musical output is a dreamy ambient based on drones but with a movement obtained with an unusual commitment to writing. As it's not surprising these days, this release is available, apart from digital format, on cassette.

   
   So, "Paris 1870. Melancholy during a trip in hot air ballon.", the first side of this tape, with his ebb and flow of his drone sound as crossover between ambient, loop music and minimalism of rare evocativeness and cure for sonic details which is as static as far from boredom. The other side of this tape, "Stories of long journeys in Indochina.", is, instead, a slowly evolving track which add layers of sound as time goes by and, when the drone starts, create a pacific sound watercolor which lasts until it slowly fades to silence.

   
   This is a remarkable release which would be enjoyed by all fans of classic ambient as it has all characteristics of that genre without being outdated. Waiting for the next volume.

4. Music Won't Save You

   Il viaggio, inteso nella sua duplice accezione spaziale e temporale, è al centro della prima pubblicazione di Jules, progetto artistico deliberatamente anonimo e forse non privo di riferimenti a Verne, al debutto con le due lunghe tracce di “Adventures & Explorations (Volume 1)”, primo capitolo di un progetto che intende esplorare territori sonori ai confini dell’immaginazione.

   Una sequenza di calde frequenze ambientali costituisce il carburante dei due brani di oltre diciassette minuti ciascuno delle quali consta il lavoro: la prima, “Paris 1870. My First Trip In A Hot Air Balloon.”, è un itinerario di consistenza aerea tra sogno e realtà, che di Jules incarna il profilo più lieve e armonico, innestato com’è su una corrente di esili loop in dissolvenza.

   Decisamente più articolata l’altra pièce, “Stories Of Long Journeys In Indochina”, che del titolo rispecchia i richiami esotici attraverso liquide oscillazioni sintetiche, tuttavia fin dalla metà del brano diluite in vapori visionari e suoni irregolari, che alimentano un approccio immaginifico a un’esplorazione sonora rivolta ad avventurosa trascendenza.

5. SoWhat

   In nessun tempo reale, in nessuno spazio definito. Sono immaginarie peregrinazioni di un viaggiatore irreale i resoconti sonori modellati da Jules, misterioso nonché anonimo progetto che si prefigge di costruire immaginifiche percorrenze attraverso universi verosimili ma mai concreti.

   Utilizzando un’ampia combinazione di suoni derivanti da fonti diverse, Jules ci conduce attraverso placide visioni permeate di onirico afflato che emerge prepotente sia dalle dilatate e nostalgiche sospensioni di “Paris, 1870. My first trip in a hot air balloon”, che dalle ribollenti modulazioni meditative di “Stories of long journeys in Indochina”. Espanse tessiture ambientali fluttuano vaporose lasciando a tratti emergere flebili frammenti melodici generando ibride fughe ambientali pervase di liquida visionarietà.

   Giunti in fondo a questi due tracciati non resta che rientrare nel quotidiano in attesa di una nuova tappa di questo suggestivo viaggio privo di confini.