Until now, Etienne Jaumet was better known as one half of the vintage horror soundtrack-inspired Zombie Zombie, a group that conjured up some fun on their debut A Land For Renegades. The other half of that duo also moonlights as the drummer of Herman Dune, so it’s only fitting that Jaumet has now released an album of his own.

Night Music takes the analogue goodness of Zombie Zombie and veers just slightly to the side, taking much more inspiration from kraut and techno music on this epic five song debut. Produced and mixed by the venerable Carl Craig, it’s a lush, thick album of dense electronic sounds that are kissed with just enough organic sounds to remind you that a human had a small hand in putting it all together.

With a running length of almost 50 minutes, the 5 tracks here reward with patience, and although most of the cuts have a bit too much of a pulse to truly put one to sleep, they are infused with sounds that are associated with the dark.

Speaking of sleep, the album opener of “For Falling Asleep” runs for almost 21 minutes and chugs along with relentless arpeggios, swooping cascades, and a 4/4 kick that rises and falls. While the synths are certainly the focus of the track, it’s the coils of saxophone through the track that really drive it from mellow to slightly more alert and back again.

The other tracks that clock in at roughly five minutes are all a bit more mechanical, but still manage to sing with a warbling charm. Other than the album opener, though, the true standout is the 9 minute “Through The Strata,” which drops thick layers of groaning synth together while a wheezy hurdy-gurdy and some massive drones turn the track into a sometimes dissonant gem that gets downright dizzying at times.

“Through The Strata” – Etienne Jaumet

It’s not an album that’s uniformly mind-blowing, but the solid cuts more than deliver the goods. They’re also the ones that move furthest away from the work that Jaumet is doing in Zombie Zombie, so here’s hoping his next solo outing breaks off even further.

(buy Night Music from amazon.com)

1. something excellent » Blog Archive » Year-End Mix 2009 Says:
   December 20th, 2009 at 5:51 pm

   [...] (from Eine Kleine Nacht Musik) Etienne Jaumet – “Through The Strata” (from Night Music) Animal Collective – “Brothersport” (from Merriweather Post Pavilion) Wisp [...]

2. JeffC Says:
   January 2nd, 2010 at 9:22 pm

   While I really dig the while disc, Through the Strata is amazing. Thanks again for the awesome recs…