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YVES DE MEY

Sueda

LINE is pleased to welcome back Yves De Mey for his first release for LINE since ‘Lichtung’ (LINE_039) in 2009.

On Sueda, De Mey explores the fundamentals of FM and Modal synthesis, and combines them in a confined and sparse space. Although the majority of the material is generated digitally, Sueda sounds, at times, surprisingly acoustic. Because of this, the album bears more resemblance to De Mey’s ‘Lichtung’ for LINE than his more recent work released through other labels.

Sueda sounds as if it were composed and played on one singular instrument, and every track on the album figuratively represents a new alloy of resonating pulses in a tight feedback network.

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Catalog:
LINE_101
Format:
digital
Edition:
open edition
Release:
February 2019
Tracklist:

1. Sueda (04:59)
2. Antimony (07:08)
3. At Long Last (08:08)
4. Clangor (05:48)
5. Meshes (12:08)
6. DXMS (06:01)
7. Manifold (05:31)
8. Word Touch Gone (05:30)

Produced, played, mixed and mastered by Yves De Mey

Yves De Mey’s musical path consists of many different roads. During the second half of the 90’s, his releases were clearly rooted in breakbeats and UK drum’n’bass. Soon after that, through working for theater and dance performances and doing large scale sound installations, his interest in experimental sound design found its way into his music. De Mey worked with a wide roster of artists for the performing arts.

In 2009 his album Lichtung (based on the score he made for a dance performance) was released by the influential LINE label. Around that time, De Mey’s main tool in the studio became his ever-expanding modular synthesizer system. This definitely changed his way of working and obviously his sound as well, shifting from an elaborate niftiness in the digital realm to an obsessive cable-patched shaping of the real sound of electricity.

Between 2009 and today, De Mey released numerous records on different labels (Sandwell District, Opal Tapes, Entr’acte, Modal Analysis,…) to wide critical acclaim, and he has played live concerts and DJ-sets around the world.

2016 was a milestone year with well-received albums on Spectrum Spools (Drawn with Shadow Pens) and on Editions Mego (with his other project Sendai – Ground and Figure).

Together with his good friend Peter Van Hoesen (from Sendai), he also runs Archives Intérieures, a label for challenging and sophisticated electronic music.

In 2017, the UK based Inner Surface label released a full album of De Mey’s other moniker Grey Branches, called Neuroclaps. It’s a somewhat wild take on what could be non-functional club music.

In early 2018, the french label Latency released De Mey’s Bleak Comfort, his latest full album. Described by Boomkat as “highly impressive electronic music that leaves the listener heavily disoriented and quite possibly motion-sick”.

During daytime, De Mey works as a sound designer and re-recording mixer for tv and cinema.

knobsounds.com

portrait by Wanda Detemmerman

REVIEWS OF
Sueda

  • It’s nice to see Yves De Mey returning to the LINE imprint.  His previous work with the label, Lichtung, was a single long form piece that was the original score for a dance solo.  This new album finds the Belgian artist exploring the robust sound world of FM and Modal synthesis. Over the last ten years, De Mey’s approach to sound has been influenced by his dive into modular synths, patching and creating various hardware systems.  This is evident on “Suenda”, the eight tracks all sharing an overall sonic identity that lends cohesion to the collection of pieces, with some surprises along the way.

    The album begins with the title track, rumbling and groaning into life with slow shudders and modal plucks.  It’s a sluggish track, taking its time to wake before forming into a gauzy stretch of elongated tones, and the perfect way to introduce the LP.

    All the tracks here are highly experimental works that represent De Mey’s adventures in pure synthesis.  The usual glassy, crystalline tones of FM synthesis have been smudged and abstracted into less familiar ones.  “At Long Last” adds a little rhythmic quality to proceedings, albeit more implied than upfront.  Sudden bass bombs interrupt the soundscape, like depth charges splashing into an ocean of audio.

    “Clangor” abruptly changes the tone of the album, which until this point has been darker washes of electronics.  On this track, high frequencies burst through and brighten De Mey’s sound world, and skittering beats cling and clang.  I love the modal qualities on this track, sweeping through different frequency ranges, filters combing through different shades.  This is the most playful track here, recalling the generative FM melodies of recent Autechre. “Meshes” returns us back to the drifting ambience, with a buzzing drone that pans throughout the stereo field like a search light in the dark.  The title of this track seems to gel perfectly with the album art, crisscrossed lines like colourful threads.

    “Manifold” again brings some light to the sound pallet, with trebly blasts too brittle to be called beats, but that create the illusion of rhythm nonetheless.  There are weird, melodic parts here too, and once these join the blast-beats, an escalation occurs where the whole track threatens to implode into itself.  Thrilling stuff!

    The album ends with “Word Touch Gone”, maybe the most minimal of this suite of tracks.  Thin sine waves quiver and float above harder bell-like tones that simply ebb back into silence.  This album is presented with zero conceptual baggage or narrative, no historical background to explain the process.  Simply the result of De Mey’s fascination with synthesis, it’s shared with the listener to be enjoyed purely on the merits of the sounds as-are.
    (toneshift.net)

  • Belgian synth boffin Yves De Mey (Sendai) loops back to Richard Chartier’s label with Sueda, a beguiling suite that short-circuits perceptions of analog/digital tones, neatly mirroring the results of Lichtung, his 2009 debut LP for LINE.
    (boomkat.com)