Fictions (Made To Measure Vol. 47)

Description

Eight remarkable artists compose and record original pieces for an album that weaves links between vintage ambient, experimental and neo-classical, while paying tribute to the Made To Measure series. - - All the pieces were expressly tailor-made for this album, around the general idea of wordless fiction. - - This fascinating collection of atmospheres and sonic narratives also aims to highlight the links between historical ambient composers (represented here by Benjamin Lew & Steven Brown and Stubbleman, whose work has already been released as part of the Made To Measure series), artists who approach experimental ambient from their pop or club background (Lucrecia Dalt, Inne Eysermans, Matias Aguayo), and leading representatives of the new generation of ambient composers (Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Christina Vantzou, Mary Lattimore, Félicia Atkinson). - - The cover of 'Fictions' is illustrated by a painting by Angel Vergara Santiago, the renowned Belgian artist (whose two canvases had already illustrated earlier volumes in the Made To Measure series, during the 80s). The album’s musical direction was handled by Marc Hollander. Launched by Crammed Discs in 1984, the Made To Measure series set out to present some of the most interesting instrumental music of the time. Thirty-five volumes were released during the series’ first decade, which welcomed varied musical adventures, often exploring and blending chamber music, electronics, what was then called 'new music' (minimalism and neo-classicism), experimental avant-rock and various forms of sonic exploration. - - During this first period, Made To Measure released the work of artists such as Hector Zazou, John Lurie, Fred Frith, Arto Lindsay, Zelwer, Steven Brown, Peter Principle, Harold Budd, Brion Gysin, David Cunningham, Benjamin Lew, Ramuntcho Matta, Karl Biscuit, Daniel Schell, Aksak Maboul, Minimal Compact and many others. The series was named "Made To Measure" ('fait sur mesure'), half-seriously, to give a semi-fictional guiding line to what - like all Crammed ventures, driven by the label’s irrepressible curiosity - was destined to become an inevitably eclectic collection. The idea was therefore the following: these would be pieces of music created, or that could have been created, as soundtracks for other media (film, dance, theatre, video, fashion shows). Although only a small third of the albums released in the series were actually conceived from the outset as soundtracks (one may notably recall the music created by John Lurie for the first two landmark films by Jim Jarmusch), the intersections with other artistic disciplines proved numerous: the composers associated with Made To Measure collaborated with renowned filmmakers (Wim Wenders, Bernardo Bertolucci, Tom Tykwer, Jarmusch), choreographers (Maurice Béjart, Karole Armitage, Régine Chopinot, Philippe Découflé, Karine Saporta), fashion designers (Yohji Yamamoto, Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons), to name only the best known. Armed with a quote from painter Georges Braque as their motto (A lemon next to an orange ceases to be a lemon and the orange an orange and becomes fruit. Mathematicians follow this rule. So do we), as well as a unified visual presentation, featuring the near-systematic use of pre-existing works of art to illustrate the covers, we seem to have succeeded in creating and animating a collection that has become emblematic, has been followed by music lovers around the world, and enjoys cult status to this day. - - The Made To Measure series has recently been relaunched, with new productions, as well as selected reissues of classic albums released during the 80s.