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Right away an insistant pervading, an interfering shrill mixes with a chiaroscuro piano. Then it breaks, a subtle confrontation leading the way to a jungle of blasting rythms crushed by guitar solos… A woman tells of her sadness and desperate happiness ; spoken words enhanced by sensitive strings, a bittersweet tune mingled with long electronic wailings Over and over, a cello grieves while a violin chimes a few notes, light quivering beats pop in to shake up this delicate chamber orchestra and push it into the technosphere. Amazing electric and tense tunes, altered sounds and sharp discords. Further on, still a spoken voice, then an answer and a dialogue of husky overexposed tones in a brilliant soundtrack… Welcome in the world of Chkrrr. What a strange name for a trip-hop downtempo that sails off balance towards all kinds of musical trends, all kinds, with no exception… Snatches of an imaginary soundtrack, echoes of blurry dreams, remains of hidden memory. Retro-futurist folk songs or post modern concerto? In all things, this is the art of sounds as Luigi Russolo predicted it a hundred years ago. Exquisite frequency waves stirring up beyond reality short cuts.
Chkrrr… means what? The sense of a common sound for this outstanding trio. A bugging computer, a squeaking bow and shrieking strings.’Chkrrr is something that scratches, a bulging shape, a friction’ Chkrr is above all a UFO in motion, a pocket orchestra applying suspended formulas. Suspension points, question, even exclamation marks. ‘When we start a song, we never know which way it will lead’ More than mere chance, there are agreed upon hazards, welcome hitches - potential wonders and subtle diversions - in a cinematic soundtrack. An in progress, enchanted metaphor for three. Three to digital power, computers adding up multiple stifled or audible tracks. This is an aesthetics of minimalist profusion. Creation is born from paradox. ‘We do not actually intend to overdo it. We like simple and minimal things’ Indeed it is not a senseless jumble, rather an organized chaos for sublimed melodies, troubled harmonies and erratic rythms. Oxymoron as an intuition to depict the surrounding world. A circle that does not go round, that needs be relaunched in bottomless orbits… This is also what Chkrrr tells about, in between the lines, with whatsoever distance and a pinch of humor†: possible and expected shortcomings, defects or misunderstandings that allow a human part in the accurate mechanics surrounding us. Real life is sometimes off tune. (...)
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