French-Canadian artist Marc Leclair is as decorated an artist as you will find in the electronic world. An in house artist for Montreal festival Mutek, having released on labels such as Background, Perlon, and Trapez, as well as being a part of the early success of fabric’s world beating mix series Marc is capable of wearing many musical hats. Many will know him as Akufen, but for the purposes of our musings today he is appearing under his Horror Inc. moniker and the result is Ohm Hourani’s Anoma released box set special edition 4 x 12” “A Soundtrack For Strange Times”. Covering the expanse of his reach with profound accuracy, Marc touches on Jazz, House, Ambient, and of course Minimal throughout this stunning release.
Starting with perhaps the most club orientated track from the LP “The Soul”, and even coming at a lofty position in the release of E1, the track exudes a mature confidence that is seldom witnessed in electronic music. The keys stabs and circling hi-hats playfully dance alongside each other but take care not to collide. Pitched down claps give a slight nod to the background of the artist in charge of the sublime music at work here, but having the knowledge and skill to meld such different worlds together is an entirely proposition to that of purely concentrating on one genre. Instead, Marc seems to bring together the best of several words at once under his unmistakable guidance.
As if purposely produced for a classic French Noir movie, the mood of the whole album ebbs and flows with a mix of somber notes, sometimes sinister themes, often hopeful moments, but all set against the backdrop of almost tangible drama. If you are looking for an album full of Marc’s trademarked juggled beats this is not the album for you. What you do get however, is a beautifully produced album that is truly a work of art that combines the electronic world with the more conventional music world and the results are quite frankly breathtaking. We won’t give you chapter and verse on each of the tracks as this is one of those albums that cannot be done justice with words as it needs to be heard to be truly appreciated.
You can buy “A Soundtrack For Strange Times” by Horror Inc. from Yoyaku now.
More info on Akufen / Horror Inc.
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