Julien Demoulin – Everything Forgotten, Everything Remembered.
Focus breathe
Julien Demoulin is a French born ambient/IDM artist currently based in Brussels. Demoulin has released music as Silencio and Pandorama as well as under his own name. This latest collection is his third record for Sound In Silence, the specialist label famous for its handmade, limited run packaging.
Everything Forgotten, Everything Remembered is an album of serene minimalism and textural exploration. Where many records can be described as ‘organic’ Everything Forgotten, Everything Remembered almost is an organ, a lung to be more precise. Each composition here respires with an inward and outward breathing pattern. I could liken it to the opening burst of Cocteau Twins Victorialand album – that slow unfolding intro to ‘Lazy Calm’, replete with twinkling, chittering background effects. The difference being Demoulins album doesn’t break into song. Instead listeners are simply rendered into a meditative state by those ‘inhale, exhale’ sunbursts of ambience. It’s pretty and for the most part calming, yet it isn’t afraid to ascend to more sinister strata’s.
Everything Forgotten, Everything Remembered succeeds as a soundstage to introspection and would work effectively as background music for holistic medicine/spas. It would also suit art installations. As a home listening experience it’s missing something, veering toward the linear. That is at least until its closing piece ‘Dissolving In Silence’ which surprises with its breathy vocals and dreampop leanings. The late, great Joe Cassidy would approve, doubtless.