I-LAND, re-release of our first album, with a bonus I:Cube Remix on May 22 2020 on Irradiant Hologram

Photo : Eric Pajot

Artist : RadioMentale

Album : I-Land

Label : Irradiant Hologram

Sortie : May 22

Digital distribution : Idol

http://soundcloud.com/radiomentale-1

Since the mid-2010’s, ambient music has made a comeback on the electronic music scene, through the rise of new artists, new labels, and a whole series of 80’s new age reissues.

In a time of climatic and sanitary crisis, and in a time when clubs, dancefloor and festivals are closed, more and more people seem to be seduced by the escapism power of ambient music.

Since their debut in the 1990’s, within the electronic and chill-out scene, the DJ and sound artist duo founded by JEAN-YVES LELOUP and ERIC PAJOT are considered as pioneer of the french ambient wave with their mixture of electronic sounds and cinematic atmospheres, adding a narrative and darker feeling to this ethereal genre of music.

In the past, the Parisian duo was rather illustrated with mixes, sound montages and collages, presented in the form of radio broadcasts, cinemixes, performances or audiovisual installations.

Reissued by french label Irradiant Hologram with a new and powerful remix by cult-producer I :Cube, here is a new version of their first real album published in 2012 (which was sold-out, and unavailable on streaming platforms).

The album gathers three original compositions, each one lasting twenty minutes. Mixing vocals with field recordings (natural and urban sounds) and electronic sounds, as well as revealing a rich and poetic universe, halfway between ambient, drone, soundscape and sound art.

The characteristic features of Radiomentale’s sounds remain untouched: human vocals, immersion and hypnosis aesthetics, cinematic climate, sense of narration and atmospheres.

A new album by Radiomentale will follow in the next months on Irradiant Hologram.

Tracklisting

Created in 2011 for the Tapage Nocturne show on France Musique national french radio station, and completed during 2012, « Smooth Operator » is inspired from work produced by the two artists for the movie White Square (Carré Blanc) (2011), directed by Jean-Baptiste Léonetti. This « dystopian » science fiction full-length movie called for a futuristic society oddly similar to ours, in which all collective spaces were equipped with a soundtrack composed of natural sounds and electronic manipulations, supposed to cancel out the conscience of its inhabitants. Therefore, the sound piece recalls in an abstract way the figure of a strange operator who, from his control room, creates aural landscapes aiming to manipulate the minds.

As for « Sinking », it was recorded live in 2012 on France Musique radio station, for Ars Acustica, a European radio event gathering a network of artists and broadcasts dedicated to sound art. Here, bits of vocals, poems and monologues create a piece in the shape of a drift and hypnotic incantation.

« Gotlander » is a creation carried out by Eric Pajot alone, who, in the RadioMentale duo, composes a good proportion of the sounds and electronic melodies. The vocal and field recordings ensemble was recorded during his trip on the Gotland Swedish Island, on the occasion of the shooting of the film Are You There ? (Grégory Abou, 2010) for which he produced the music and the sound design. We can hear the artist pacing the deserted and snowy landscapes, which create the charm and the mystery of this archipelago in the Baltic Sea, on which hovers the memory of two filmmakers, Andreï Tarkovski (who shot The Sacrifice there, his last production) and Ingmar Bergman (who lived on the Fårö Island).

« Sinking (I:Cube remix) : Fan and friend of the Radiomentale duo since their first radio shows in the 1990’s, french cult-producer I:Cube, who has in the past remixed such artists as Daft Punk, Peggy Gou or Todd Terje, is the author of a more epic and celestial version, adding a sense of drama and power to the original hypnotic version.

Jean-Yves Leloup is also a curator, journalist and a DJ. He has followed the evolution of electronic music in France since the emergence of the rave scene, in 1990. He is the author of 5 books about electronic music and was recently the curator of the acclaimed Paris exhibition Electro : from Kraftwerk To Daft Punk. The exhibition, which was due to open in April at London Design Museum, will probably open during the summer or in September 2020. He is currently writing a new book about ambient music.

Éric Pajot is a visual artist, a musician and a DJ. He is the author of several DVDs on graphic and digital art; he produces scenic videos all the while carrying out his solo and ambient musical project as Humans By Billions. He released 3 ambient albums on Irradiant Hologram, Humans By Billions (2015), Solar (2016) and the more recent Sacred Fields (2019).

Discography:
Radiomentale The Slow Room, 1997, mixed CD,
Radiomentale The Cut-Up Scenario, 2004, mixed CD
L-R & Radiomentale I Could Never Make That Music Again, 2008

Radiomentale & Pierre La Police Traumavision, 2010