Véronique Samsung is the newest incarnation of the decade-long collaboration between Clément Cosset and Tom Nominé. Moving west, from Poitiers to Nantes, they decamped in a new space with a scant two suitcases of analog kit, and began working out a new approach to recording.
Recorded in Nantes’ musical campus Trempo, they built their songs from a bedrock of improvisation, eschewing the use of computers and embracing the emergent spontaneity. The sessions saw them joined by Nantes’ native Simo Cell, who leant a sympathetic ear and a characteristically unpredictable approach to their work. The result is laid bare on their new three-track EP, Départements d’Outre-Tombe, and sets up frameworks for the numerous live shows they’re playing.
‘Mystère De L’Agriculture’ is the lead track, an exuberant breakbeat cut that deploys pastoral motifs in the form of harp and pan-flute synth timbres against deft drum programming and a hardcore descending bassline right out of early Jungle. It captures the duality of wide-eyed hippie pastoralism and hardcore sonics that characterized the naivete of early rave, in a way that interrogates flat idealization of the countryside.
Départements d’Outre-Tombe will be released by 44 Tours on 10th December.
Stamp The Wax · Véronique Samsung – Mystère De L’Agriculture (STW Premiere)
