Bertrand Belin – Nord De Tout
I’ve been waiting for what seems like forever to post some kind words about this record ever since I received an advance copy all the way back in July. Bertrand Belin is a French singer songwriter with some interesting sonic sensibilities. For the most part his sound (in terms of both the music and his vocals) is fairly reminiscent of recent work from Bill Callahan of Smog or at times Calexico (perhaps minus the horns), but something strange and a bit unexpected always seems to happen in the arrangements for these tracks on this his third full-length record “Hyper Nuit”.
“Nord de Tout” remains my favorite track, with this slow moving laconic beat on the drums, atmospheric phrasing from piano and guitars that for the most part roll through their notes for the entire song. About mid way through, all of the sudden, some woodwinds (or maybe mellotron/keyboards mimicing woodwinds) pipe up for a bit before fading back into the mix and things return back to main theme, which is interrupted again near the very end by twin guitars that seem to come out of nowhere but never wreck the mood. Beautiful work from one of my favorite contemporary international releases of the year.
Just bought the album after hearing "Neige au Soleil" on Radio-Canada.
Really is a fantastic album, I'm currently facing some hard decisions on whether to include this or Bastien Lallemant's album to my year end list.