Fictions (Made To Measure Vol. 47)

Description

Eight remarkable artists compose and record original pieces for an album that weaves connections between vintage ambient, experimental, and neo-classical styles, while paying homage to the Made To Measure series. - - All tracks were expressly "made to measure for this album" around the general idea of wordless fictions. - - This fascinating collection of soundscapes and sonic narratives also aims to highlight the connections 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 backgrounds (Lucrecia Dalt, Inne Eysermans, Matias Aguayo), and prominent 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 paintings already adorned previous Made To Measure volumes in the 80s). The musical direction for the album was overseen by Marc Hollander.Launched by Crammed Discs in 1984, the Made To Measure series set out to showcase some of the most interesting instrumental music of its time. Thirty-five volumes were released during the series' first decade, featuring varied musical adventures, often encompassing and blending chamber music, electronics, what was then called 'new music' (minimalism and neoclassicism), experimental avant-rock, and various forms of sound exploration. - - During this initial period, Made To Measure published works by 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 christened "Made To Measure" (custom-made), semi-seriously, to give a semi-fictional guiding principle to what - like all Crammed's ventures, driven by the label's irrepressible curiosity - was destined to become an inevitably eclectic collection. The idea was thus: it would be 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 (notably John Lurie's music for Jim Jarmusch's first two seminal films), the intersections with other artistic disciplines proved numerous: 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), and fashion designers (Yohji Yamamoto, Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons), to name but the most famous.Armed with a quote from painter Georges Braque as its motto (A lemon next to an orange ceases to be a lemon and the orange an orange to become fruits. Mathematicians follow this rule. So do we), as well as a unified visual presentation featuring the almost systematic use of pre-existing artworks to illustrate the covers, we seem to have succeeded in creating and animating a collection that has become emblematic, was followed by music lovers worldwide, 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.