Since 2001 or so,
Stephan Mathieu has been searching for a new sound. One after another, his releases have been feeling like works in progress, attempts and experiments to break away from the minimal techno label his solo debut had filed him under.
The Sad Mac represents the point where the artist manages to bring back together and make sense of all these experiments. The field recordings, the minimalist sound art, the quiet drones: they all contribute to this ravishing project, which consists of 11 tracks, some only a few seconds long (acting as intro, interlude, and coda), while one of them stretches out to over 17 minutes. They all feature guest musicians that
Mathieu had recorded with their consent and with the intention to "recompose" their offerings. Classical violin, opera singers, and early period instruments provide the main sonic spectrum of the album, to which the composer himself adds percussion, hammered dulcimer, piano, and pump organ on a few tracks. From the shimmering drone of "Theme for Oud Amelisweerd" to the delicate
Sylvain Chauveau-like "piano over high frequencies" of "Imagination,"
Mathieu takes listeners on a gentle electro-acoustic ride. There are a few harsher bumps along the way ("Tinfoil Star," for instance), but they are not gratuitous and contribute to the overall experience. This album has warmth and offers a form of beauty
Mathieu had not achieved before, a level of bliss that is too rare in this kind of work. The distinction between acoustic and electronic, real playing and processing vanishes, so that a piece like "icedevirrA" has the same ethereal power as
John Luther Adams' or Michael Jon Fink's string works. One of the best avant-garde albums of 2005,
The Sad Mac is not a computer artist's album. It's a composer's album.