Influences: Tim Paris

I started to be obsessed with Field Recording a couple of years ago and got my head immersed into it. It’s absolutely fascinating and I cannot recommend enough for anyone to go and discover this area of music. Let’s dive deep directly. Please meet Ake Parmerud, a Swedish field recording artist who has probably done one of the most mind blowing piece of music ever. He travelled the world for years, recording people talking in various countries before spending (a lot of) time composing a piece with these elements, very little effects or production, just editing really.

A fantastic musician who left us really frustrated as his career has been very short. Half a dozen releases of avant-garde rock with Talk Talk and he decided to shut it down. He just did one more solo album (this track is the opening) and then retired from a business he despised. One of the very few who dared to fuck it all. Legend.

Here’s someone I would love everyone to know about. Not an “artist” per say but she is considered as a key figure of 20th century’s music. Nadia was a music teacher and received a large number of pupils in her flat during a few decades. Her music lessons became legendary. There are a few archives of her teaching, it’s phenomenal. The list of people who moved to Paris to become her students speaks for itself: Aaron Copland, Elliot Carter, Daniel Barenboim, Philipp Glass, Astor Piazzola, Yehudi Menuhin, Quincy Jones, Lalo Schifrin, Michel Legrand, Leonard Bernstein…

A lovely song from a brilliant EP. It’s just a one shot from 3 producers who teamed up for a single session and delivered this little piece of magic. The label it was released on is pretty fascinating as well, one of the most forward thinking output in France during the 80s. The mind of a single guy in Nancy (far from Paris) who gathered some of the most interesting artists, on the best named label you can think of: Les Disques du Soleil et de l’Acier.

One of her first single on Stax, been listening to it all summer. A brilliant song with so much originality in the vocal, probably one more proof of that “beginner’s chance” theory, which I think, really apply to music.

This album from Jeanne Lee & Ran Blake changed my mind for ever about jazz. It’s weird, dark…a real gem, especially when you notice this was done in 1962.
I’m really embarrassed that Jazz has become so tacky through the years…

A brilliant piece of experimental rock&roll from UK. They only made 2 albums and this one is an absolute killer, I have never heard such a thing. On purpose they edited all the tracks and did some sort of artistic collages within every tunes of the record.

I got into classical piano for a while too and she is probably today’s most incredibly gifted pianist. The piece is a bit ridiculous but she’s such a great musician, and the way she plays is out-of-this-earth.

Here’s a gorgeous piece from Keyboardist Steve Kuhn. I use to listen to ECM records a lot when I was a teenager and this label has massively influenced my work. The way their records sound, their production, their reverbs, are foundations of my aesthetic. Manfred Eicher is the brain behind it and I consider him as one of the genius of the 20th century, the list of artists he gathered on his label is tremendous: Keith Jarret, Arvo Part, Carla Bley, Chick Corea, Dave Holland, Jan Garbarek, Charlie Haden, Steve Swallow…

I had to pick an electro tune, even though this is not what I listen to most of the time, it remains the last revolution in music who got me hooked, the reason why I’m here today. Originally released on Metroplex, this song is now one of my favourite from the catalogue, essential electronic music to me.