Romain Turzi born of an Italian father and French mother, formerly frontman of a Steve Reich cover band (Reich IV, Turzi's backing band still), and Kemado-made figurehead of the French psych scene will release an album with said label on September 4th 2007. The album, A, couples a tidily growling guitar freak feel with electronic ambience and/or beats. Check out the first two tracks on his MySpace page for clarification. Look out, his songs are “devoted to mind elevation and expansion of the human soul.” The band's got a reputation for live improvisation but the recordings are water-tight psych-pop songs (sung in English). They're touring Europe in the summer and North America after their album's September release.
The press release included an A-Z guide to Turzi, pasted in full below. Some key excerpts:
S: Stone, Nick
Psychologist and a true sound sorcerer, Nick Stone mixed “A”, erasing all
the vintage mannerisms that existed propelling the album into the future.
[In light of being labeled psych music:]
P: Pan European
Far from the hegemonic traditions of the Anglo-American world (blues and
pop), Turzi re-vindicates the old European heritage. A Europe that is cold,
experimental and synthetic that found its own voice in Italy (Goblin), in
Germany (Kraftwerk), in France (the (Hypothetical) Prophets) or in
Switzerland (Grauzone). Brainticket, a visionary group form the 70's whose
members were Swiss, Italian, and German are an emblem for Turzi's
Pan-European vision.
L: Live
“A” was mostly recorded live and partially improvised. Roman Turzi and his
band Reich IV gave precedence to aural experimentation in the studio. It
was on stage, were the group displays this quasi-hypnotic power best, that
most of these compositions were born.
But read the whole thing if you want to know when electronic instruments will play themselves and how guitars become martyrs.
In addition to A, Kemado commissioned Turzi to curate a various artists compilation of contemporary French psych acts, the results of which are available for free with purchase of a physical copy of the album.
TRACK LIST for A
01 A
02 Alpes
03 Animal Signal
04 Are You Thinking About Jesus?
05 Afghanistan
06 Acid Taste
07 A Notre Pere
08 Aigle
09 Amadeus
10 Attila Blues
11 Authority 17
12 Allah Delon
13 Axis Of Good
TRACK LIST for V/A – Voyage: Facing the History of French Modern Psychedelic Music
01 One Switch to Collision – Smokes
02 Aqua Nebula Oscillator – Ready to Fly
03 Sbastian Tellier – Paris
04 Butch MC Koy – Sin
05 Service – The Dog
06 Ulysse – The Countess's Smiles
07 Koudlam – I Was Down
08 Musikasphaera – Beware
09 Kill for Total Peace – Psychopedestrian
10 Modadishow – Mantra
11 Turzi – Aigle (Hi Fli Mix)
12 Juan Trip – High America
13 Chicros – New Orleans
14 tienne Jaumet – Doudouk
15 Rob – Improvisation
“The ABCs of Turzi:
A: A.
B: Brain.
Levitating and mediating, introspective and ecstatic, Turzi's music is a
mental and sensory experience, an invitation on an internal journey of the
mind and body.
C: Cover
The covert art on the record is the work Marke Newton. A student of classic
portraiture with a passion for street culture. This British artist mixes
religious iconography with psychedelic pop.
D: Dieu
God. “A notre pere” the seventh song on “A” is not an invitation to
conversion but an automatic and fantasmic chant, a nervous cultural reflex.
The prayer memorized automatically during catechism is here nothing more
than an abstract succession of blank words. An incantation empty of
meaning, repeated indefinitely until the collapse of conscience. Only one
sensation remains: elevation.
E: Electronic.
Electronic waves are used here as live instruments. The synthetic
partitions are neither sketches nor products. No Pro Tools in the horizon.
Master of the domesticated synth, Turzi nonetheless fantasizes, in the
manner of Kraftwerk or Arpanet, the revolt of the machines, whom, finally
liberated of human kinds dictates, would only play themselves.
F: Family
A contemporary French psychedelic one: One Switch to Collision, Aqua Nebula
Oscillator, Total Peace, Zombie-Zombie, Steeple Remove. But also our
relatives from the 70's: Gong, Alpes, Areski + Fontaine and also Dashiell
Hedayat who noted on the liner notes of his album “Obsolete”: “this record
must be played as loud as possible, must be heard as stoned as impossible
and thank you everybody”
G: Guitar
Used and abused, guitars have a tough life with Turzi. Removed from their
heroic role, they are demystified and returned to their role as
instrument-martyrs.
H: History
The working title for “A” was ” In the Face of History”
I: Inflammable
“A” is a visual trip recorded on inflammable film. Each piece was
envisioned as an individual cinematographic sequence building towards a
narrative whole. There is meant to be little or no space between the pieces
as they intertwine organically.
J: Jesus
After an appearance on “Made Under Authority” (see 'M') Jesus is back on
“A” and he still has no business on the dance floor.
K: Krautrock
Or “rock choucroute” as it is known in France. The term used to describe
that incredible wave of German bands (Ash Ra Temple, Amon Duul, Can, Faust,
Neu!, Kraftwerk, Cluster.) that in the beginning of the 70's destroyed the
carcass of rock by exploring the possibilities offered by minimalism,
electronics, and tribal music.
L: Live
“A” was mostly recorded live and partially improvised. Roman Turzi and his
band Reich IV gave precedence to aural experimentation in the studio. It
was on stage, were the group displays this quasi-hypnotic power best, that
most of these compositions were born.
M: Made Under Authority.
The first Turzi EP was released in November 2005. The six songs on “Made
Under Authority' were composed by Romain Turzi in the kitchen of his Paris
apartment. The press had some nice things to say: “Turzi's music provokes,
before anything, a giddy happiness in its listener, this along with the
vital need to make the innocent suffer and to be married before god to a
total stranger” -Technikart.
N: Narcotic
In the words of Romain Turzi: “Music, whether you are initiated in it or
not, should make you have the same sensations as doing drugs. With this is
mind it is our intention to play with the listener, to make him go up and
down, to create a malaise as well pleasure.”
O: Oppression.
In contrast to the “good vibrations” so dear to Brian Wilson, music can
also be a source of “Bad Vibrations”. Turzi paints with both of these
palettes.
P: Pan European
Far from the hegemonic traditions of the Anglo-American world (blues and
pop), Turzi re-vindicates the old European heritage. A Europe that is cold,
experimental and synthetic that found its own voice in Italy (Goblin), in
Germany (Kraftwerk), in France (the (Hypothetical) Prophets) or in
Switzerland (Grauzone). Brainticket, a visionary group form the 70's whose
members were Swiss, Italian, and German are an emblem for Turzi's
Pan-European vision.
Q: Question.
Are you thinking about Jesus?
R: Reich IV
The band formed by Romain Turzi to accompany him on stage and in the
studio. The four stars of Reich are:
Sky Over, drums. Met him at catechism class.
Hard Rock Gunter, Guitar. Met him in boarding school.
Judah Warsky, Keyboards. Met him in the street.
Arthur Rambo, bass. Met him at a record store.
S: Stones, Nick
Psychologist and a true sound sorcerer, Nick Stone mixed “A”, erasing all
the vintage mannerisms that existed propelling the album into the future.
T: Turzi
Romain Turzi was born in Versailles in 1979. A French mother and an Italian
father from Calabria. His studies at the Sorbonne helped him discover all
the record stores in the vicinity of the university. He held a couple of
temporary job at record stores before deciding to pursue music full time.
“A” will be released at the same time as the birth of his first child.
U: UHF.
As in Ultra High Frequency. While most rock music stays within the confines
of medium frequency to facilitate a comfortable listening experience, Turzi
enjoys using the highest and sharpest frequencies he can find. He enjoys
exploring the entire sonic palette, from one extreme of the spectrum to the
other.
V: Versailles
It was in Versailles, the hometown of most of the members of Reich IV, that
Romain Turzi met Marc Tessier Du Cros who eventually was responsible for
signing Turzi to his label Record Makers along side such luminaries as
Sebastien Tellier, Arpanet, and I love UFO.
W: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Austrian composer (Salzburg 1756 – Vienna 1791). A master of melody, he
searched for purity and elegance and knew how to obtain grandeur through
simplicity and grace. But behind the clarity and the fantasy, irony and a
worried soul shone through. Amadeus is the 9th song on “A”.
X: Ecstasy
1.. A trance or trancelike state in which an individual transcends
normal consciousness.
2.. Admiration and pleasure derived from listing to the music of Turzi.
Y: ye-ye
Popular French musical style during the 60's in which French bands try to
recreate the sounds of Britain and the US. You could consider Turzi to be
an “anti ye-ye” band.
Z: Z machine.
The Z machine is the most powerful x-ray generator in the world. Conceived
as a tool to control materials that have been exposed to conditions of
extreme temperature and pressure, the machine is used primarily as a tool
for collecting and organizing the data from nuclear weapons. Turzi is a Z
machine.”
