MODULAR by Moreau

Musica361 (Francesca Binfaré) - Review (ITA)
https://www.musica361.it/lucien-moreau-quando-la-musica-e-modular/


"By a route obscure and lonely,

Haunted by ill angels only,

Where an Eidolon, named Night,

On a black throne reigns upright.

I have reached these lands but newly

From an ultimate dim Thule –

From a wild weird clime, that lieth, sublime,

Out of Space – out of Time."

Edgar Allan Poe · Dream-Land (1844)

"MODULAR: 'aggregation of modular elements structured on models in which aesthetics and function are complementary and synergistic'. These are the key words of Lucien Moreau's latest concept album, in digital format and strictly independent, which follows his EP “Plexus” (2018) after one year. Fifteen tracks from electronic nature, ambient, sometimes abstract, sometimes with a classic contemporary character, but still with an experimental imprint and distinctly cinematic tones. A soundtrack for the times to come, or the eternal present in which the globular elements of MODULAR move.
The instruments used in the most experimental tracks are called "organic synthesizers", ie devices algorithmic based able to produce sounds by replicating the biological dynamics of some species of bacteria or insects. Cells. Microorganisms. Amino acids. Emerging systems. Fundamental pieces of existence. Every living organism is music and produces a sound. This concept gave rise to most of the songs on the album, composed and performed by Lucien Moreau through a series of bizarre digital / analog synths. Throughout the work there is a special regard for Architecture: that of an urban agglomeration as well as a biological system. Microbiota. Macrobiota. The interchange between the inside and the outside, between the infinitely small and the infinitely large. The boundaries between one and the other are purely indicative and completely unstable.
Opening and closing of the album (Tōryanse, Ars Est Noh) are built starting from the traditional motif of Japanese pedestrian traffic lights, to then immerse themselves in the broader musical abstraction, close to the more cerebral dimensions of northern European electronics. There are also two symphonic compositions (Wûnderthal Waltz, Part 1 / Part 2): a diptych in the form of a waltz, sometimes electronic, sometimes orchestral, in which the melody for piano embraces that for symphony orchestra. Some music tracks have arisen from the collaboration / contamination with contemporary dance (Nihon Sun, Intercom), in a series of shows that Moreau has performed in cities like Berlin, Bangkok, Montreal, Warsaw and Taipei, to name a few.
A note of mention should be placed for the track "The Brutalist", composed in the metric of the classical baroque and entrusted to a string quartet and an harpsichord. "I seem to be a verb" stratifies the intensity of a cyclical piano melody inspired by the sound of a cold room, recorded by Lucien Moreau and associated (in a totally synesthetic way) to the verses of a famous poem by William Butler Yates , read by an artificial voice. "Der Morgenstern" is the piece with the most cinematic tones: a ride in the form of cyclic minimalism towards an explosive ending that adds powerful synthesizers to a purely symphonic ensemble. A crescendo, therefore, towards the last and more experimental “Microbioma”, which summarizes and concludes the general concept of MODULAR: an album generated according to Richard Buckminster Fuller's founding points of Synergetics and Tensegrity, in search of the first and of the last, of the extremities, of the conjunction between real and virtual, between essence and appearance, between truth and illusion.
A complex and original work that strikes the meninges and demands reflection and immersion. A work certainly close to the international experimental music scene. From Brian Eno to Jóhann Jóhannsson, passing by Philip Glass. A demanding work, as only the most authentic art can be." – S.E.

Multimedia Artist. Modular Sound Explorer. I work for films, games, fashion, contemporary dance + theatre and digital art installations, performing live with a set of digital / analogue instruments, such as piano, keyboards, synthesisers and generative touch devices, mixing up experimental electronic, contemporary classical, ambient, EDM and psytrance, with a strong cinematic outcome.

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