Sébastien Brun e Simon Henocq li avevamo conosciuti un paio di anni fa con il loro progetto Parquet, ed il sentirli in questo Vallées, seppur sotto spoglie piuttosto diverse, rinforza l’idea che mi ero fatto delle loro capacità allora. Fidandoci della cartella stampa dovremmo trovarci di fronte ad un duetto fra chitarra e batteria, anche se il suono viene pesantemente destrutturato e rivisto, tanto da far sembrare ci sia una pressa completa ad estrudere tanta fantasiosa ritmica. Motorik sound sferzato con l’acido in Shore, disturbi ambientali in Falaises, Sebastien e Simon non smettono di stupirci riducendo la loro azione quasi a comprimere il loro agito, che ne esce irresistibile da una forgia mica da poco. Non c’è tregua, né struttura, solo momenti sonori che si susseguono in un percorso disturbato da balbuzie e cambi di ritmo che non fanno prigionieri, rendendoci all’erta e reattivi su ogni capovolgimento di fronte. Se la title track potrebbe lontanamente ricordare un dub da Alpha Centauri, con le successive Harbour e Bloc le cose si complicano ulteriormente, lasciando che la chitarra corra scapestrata come della no-wave tenuta a bada dal ritmico andare della batteria. Il suono avanza a sputi e scricchiolii, prima di distendersi solo per un secondo, interrotto da disturbi promossi dal duo. Lighthouse si fa tetra e minacciosa mentre Whisper è la definitiva chiusura di un cerchio robotico, storto e rugginoso, perfetto per scavare e trivellare orecchie e corpi con un suono smodato e potente.
Insomma, per chi ha amato il gruppo madre di certo un acquisto dovuto, per chi invece non ci si è innamorato si ricreda, la materia qui è ancora più a fuoco.

Simon Henocq e Seb Brun, due figure di riferimento della scena sperimentale francese, pubblicano Vallées, un disco che non è decisamente per tutti, ma interessante per chi è alla ricerca di suoni sperimentali contemporanei, in modo da costruirsi nuovi (s)punti interpretativi sulla musica non commerciale. Filosofico, sincopato, distorto e intrigante.

Esperti del suono e produttori engagé, dediti a sviluppare progetti innovativi, Simon Henocq e Seb Brun sono due figure di riferimento della scena sperimentale francese. Il primo è impegnato con il collettivo parigino Coax, il secondo invece con la casa discografica Carton Records, fondata nel 2009. Insieme formano un tandem audace, che, anche adottando un approccio radicale, si diletta a sperimentare nel ramo dell'elettronica, della noise e dell'ambient. Testimonianza ne è l’album Vallées, uscito da poco, appunto, per la Carton records. Nel lavoro, che è ricco di stimoli, la fanno da padrona i suoni sintetici e campionati, reminiscenti degli Autechre e di certi pezzi di Aphex Twin.

Il disco contiene dodici tracce, che, è bene precisare, non sono alla portata di tutti: "Coil", la metallica "Trim", "Shore", "Falaises", l’ambigua "Vers / Quiet", "Éléments", l’omonima "Vallées", "Harbour", "Bloc", "Fissure", l’atmosferica "Lighthouse", e, per finire, "Whisper". Alla loro base c’è un percorso creativo articolato. Utilizzando batteria e chitarra in una versione profondamente rielaborata, i due musicisti transalpini sono riusciti a creare uno stile sonoro grezzo eppure avvolgente, in cui la forma del suono è compatta, a tratti quasi callosa. Nei singoli pezzi affiorano suoni ipnotici, ritmi (post)industriali, molteplici interazioni in tempo reale e onde sonore volutamente distorte. Persino le pause ed i silenzi sono degli elementi per nulla casuali, con delle funzioni proprie.

Meno orientato alle atmosfere da ballo rispetto ai precedenti lavori e progetti quali Parquet, in questo nuovo disco il duo d’oltralpe si cimenta con suoni aspri, chiaramente astratti e leggermente oscuri, senza però mai abbandonare la tipica plasticità del ritmo del suono con le sue innumerevoli sfaccettature. Con l’intenzione di decostruire le convenzioni musicali caratteristiche delle scene ben più pop, Henocq e Brun si sono dimostrati abili nello sviluppare dei brani in cui si rende giustizia all’elemento dello spazio (non sempre adeguatamente considerato dagli artisti contemporanei). In più, le tracce sono pregne di tensione, favorendo in questo modo una concezione della musica elettronica che strizza l'occhio all’avanguardia.

Vallées è un’opera che può essere interpretata attraverso una chiave di lettura filosofica. Da un lato, la musica in essa contenuta è molto fisica, sulla scia dell’iter tracciato da Simon Henocq negli ultimi lavori da solista. Dall’altro lato, le scelte del duo francese si allontanano sempre più dal convenzionale mondo dance e della techno, per abbracciare in maniera piuttosto convinta ritmi sincopati, filtrati elettronicamente e rimodellati con l’utilizzo delle distorsioni, finendo per ottenere un risultato apprezzabile. Le atmosfere che ci accompagnano nell’ascolto posso finire per essere fredde (mai glaciali), a tratti dolorose, in alcuni passaggi un po’ contorte, eppure, nel complesso, rimangono intriganti e degne di ascolto.

Come detto, Vallées non è affatto un disco per tutti. Anzi, è lecito ritenere che si tratti di un album di nicchia su cui, anche per detta ragione, non è facile rilasciare giudizi. A chi nella musica cerca uno svago senza troppi pensieri, questo album finirebbe per fornire gli stimoli sbagliati, rischiando di risultare insignificante o persino inaccessibile. Viceversa, i singoli brani possono risultare d’interesse per chi è alla ricerca di suoni sperimentali contemporanei, in modo da costruirsi nuovi (s)punti interpretativi sulla musica non commerciale, e delle alternative di qualità, per provare a distanziarsi dai suoni orecchiabili e ormai prevedibili dei Daft Punk & co. Intendiamoci, è un esperimento ardito, in buona parte riuscito, ma siamo ancora lontani dal capolavoro.

Seb Brun & Simon Henocq about Collaboration at the Cusp of Control and Chaos

Drummer Seb Brun and sound artist Simon Henocq found themselves in a trance-like session they refer to as “feeding the monster.” A wild array of cables and pedals created unpredictable fedback loops – and maximally powerful physio-electronic music overwhelming both body and brain.

Most collaborations start with the simple wish by two or more musicians to play with each other. What was the initial spark to extract yourself from Parquet for a while to perform as a duo?

SB: Simon and I have been sharing our know-how for several years. He joined Parquet after the recording, and that’s really when we started working together on the album’s post-production.

At first, we had asked for help from a few people whose work we admired, but their feedback didn’t align with what we were looking for. That’s when we realized that we ourselves had a very clear artistic direction and the skills to pursue it.

From there, we developed a shared language and devised specific signal processing and routing techniques … I think I was even dreaming about them at night. These techniques now feed into our respective solo projects, our duo work, and Parquet.

Simon was working on his solo project, and if I remember correctly, I asked him if I could come and “make a bit of noise” with him. When we listened back to the recordings, it was obvious: we had to make something out of it.

SH: Lately, I’ve personally been gravitating toward more intimate collaborations. They allow for a closeness and complicity in the work that feels right for me at the moment.

With Seb, we’ve been collaborating for quite some time, especially since working together on Parquet’s album. We share practices, knowledge, and desires. We’ve had countless discussions about sound, music production, collective organization, labels … We often work around the same questions or techniques—like feedback for instance.

When the idea came up to exchange around the specific issues at stake in my solo guitar project, we felt it was worth taking the time to sit down in the studio with our instruments, almost like continuing the conversation through music.

The music came naturally. We spent two days in the studio for what was supposed to be just a meeting, and we walked out with an album.

read more on 15 questions.

Polyglot with Jesse Dorris: Playlist from September 24, 2025

Beats mismatched. New mystic moods. The International Style. Pressed and dressed. Queasy listening. New ways to fail. More is more. Backroom room tones.

A DIY radio show playlist, just scratching the surface of what is deemed “underground music”, various styles at different speeds and genres.

show from the 6 oct 2025

Seb Brun en Simon Henocq bouwden al een stevige reputatie op binnen de Franse experimentele scene. Beide heren spelen samen in de band Parquet, waarin het kwintet van die band een mix maakt van techno en noiserock gericht op de dansvloer. Drummer Brun runt tevens het Carton-label, terwijl gitarist Henocq in diverse andere bands actief is. Voor Vallées speelt elk zijn vertrouwde instrument aangevuld met een grote hoeveelheid aan elektronica. Verwacht echter geen light-versie van Parquet want dit is toch wel andere koek.

Bij momenten behoorlijk experimenteel kraakt en schraapt en spookt het aan alle kanten om dan traag maar gestaag toch richting dansvloer te bewegen, maar dan eerder een imaginaire, die zich afspeelt in een hoofd waarin de hersencellen met elkaar in botsing komen in de drang om toch geen noot te missen die zou kunnen noodzaken om enige houten benen tot bewegen aan te zetten.

Art techno of IDM noemden ze dit soort deuntjes enkele decennia geleden, al zouden de fervente aanhangers er moeite mee hebben gehad dat het hier niet alleen om elektronica draait maar ook om gitaar en drums, waarbij de klanken al dan niet door de vervormers werden gejaagd. Abstracte muziek is het zonder dat beiden oog voor ritme en toegankelijkheid uit het oog verliezen. Daardoor klinken de twaalf nummers warmer dan initieel gedacht omdat ze niet zomaar experimenteren maar het allemaal behapbaar houden, ook voor minder geoefende oren.

Votre serviteuse (sic) a longtemps servi dans les rangs de Fennesz alors ce n’est pas Vallées qui va la faire sourciller. Bien au contraire. Gros gros kiffe sur cet album imaginé par Seb Brun (Parquet, Irène, Julien Desprez, Yoann Durant, Clément Edouard, Jeanne Added, Mamani Keita entre autres names à dropper…) et Simon Henocq. Les deux font un bout de route sans Parquet qu’on adore mais bien leur en prend de sortir Vallées.

Amateurs de son indus, Vallées est à l’oreille totalement jouissif, composé et interprété, sculpté écrirons-nous, par ces deux artisans du son. Sublime découverte qui nous a occupés tout un dimanche après-midi, et on en redemande en ce lundi matin tant les deux artistes œuvrent à nous ouvrir les neurones et les chakras. Résultat ? Démolition programmée des stéréotypes de la composition classique, rénovation de ce qu’on peut nommer musique électronique.

Et pourtant ce n’est pas notre Jean-François Riffaud préféré qui bichonne sa guitare, c’est bien Simon Henocq ! L’ électroacousticien et concepteur d’installations : le voici guitariste (« il observe, détourne et réinvente les objets et instruments de lutherie électronique pour donner vie à des performances singulières, où l’expérimentation occupe une place centrale » merci à toi pour la bio, label Carton Records !). En vrai merci pour ce son, merci à Seb et à Simon d’avoir conçu un si onirique et poétique univers de rave-brute-sonore-technologique-indus, enfin, merci pour les dates à venir de ce duo aux tracks magnétiques !

It has been a while since we talked about the records that dare to confront. Vallées, the latest collaboration between French experimentalists Seb Brun and Simon Henocq, falls squarely into those releases that shapeshift the boundaries of non-conventional music. It’s a well-organized yet disorienting listening experience that keeps the listener engaged from start to finish, and in that disorientation lies its great power. Brun and Henocq, long-standing figures within the French experimental music community, crafted an album that shakes with intensity, pulling threads from musique concrète, glitch, industrial, and noise while reasserting rhythm as the fractured skeleton of their sound. Listening to Vallées feels less like entering a cavern carved from sound itself. The duo relies heavily on processed drums and guitar, but the instrumentation is so manipulated, stretched, and disassembled that you can sometimes hardly point to a snare hit or a chord progression in the conventional sense. Instead, drums morph into seismic quakes, samples dissolve into shrill shards of metallic resonance. It’s a musical experience where familiar tools are atomized, rearranged, and presented as alien organisms. Many noise or industrial records retreat into sheer brutality, a wall of aggression that leaves little space for nuance. Brun and Henocq resist that impulse. Their sound is dense, and at times almost overwhelming, but it also makes room for contemplation. The compositions are full of air, full of tension that stretches and contracts. The silences matter as much as the eruptions.

The album pulses with rhythmic patterns, but more as a fractured, hypnotic undertow. In one moment, you’ll hear something like a decaying heartbeat rendered in metallic echoes, and then syncopated bursts that border on ritualistic drumming before collapsing into static. This rhythmic backbone docks the abstraction, ensuring that this record never drifts entirely into chaos. Vallées is pretty much a study in transformation. Sounds begin as one thing and end as another, sometimes violently, sometimes so gradually that the shift is imperceptible until you realize the sonic landscape has mutated entirely. A guitar string might become a drone, then a shriek, then a bass thrum. A percussive hit might morph into a cascading glitch. This constant flux mirrors the instability of our contemporary moment, the feeling that nothing remains fixed, that solidity is always under threat of erosion. Everything is sculpted with precision. There’s rawness, distortion, and grittiness, but it is very intentional. You sense the duo’s long history in the French experimental scene, their refusal to lean on gimmickry or trend-chasing. This is the work of musicians who understand the tradition they are building upon, musique concrète, industrial pioneers, noise visionaries, and the necessity of pushing forward into new territory. It resists easy consumption and refuses the neat structures of pop or the predictable tropes of electronic subgenres, yet it is not an act of nihilism. Purpose and beauty lie beneath the piles of noise. Not beauty in the conventional sense, but the beauty of risk, vulnerability, and honesty. It dares to show itself raw and unadorned, jagged edges and all.

For listeners accustomed to melody, harmony, and traditional songcraft, Vallées may feel alienating, but that is precisely its point. It challenges us to expand our understanding of what music can be, to sit with discomfort, to embrace sound not as background but as confrontation. It recalls the best of experimental art, not because it seeks novelty for novelty’s sake, but because it insists that the medium still holds unexplored possibilities. And yet, the album is strangely immersive. Once you surrender to its world, you find yourself carried along by its strange logic. The hypnotic pulses, the abrasive textures, the moments of near-silence, they create a narrative arc, one that bypasses the rational mind and operates on a deeper register. This material seeks your full attention, patience, and openness. It is not an album designed to please, but to provoke, unsettle, and move you in ways that are not always comfortable. In doing so, it demonstrates the relevance of experimental music as an artistic practice and a cultural necessity. It is a work that deconstructs conventions while affirming the body, a record that transforms noise into closeness, chaos into structure, sound into flesh. It is about standing in the middle of a storm of sound and realizing that the storm has its own language, pulse, and its own strange beauty. It is about giving up the need to control and allowing yourself to be carried by something larger, something elemental. Vallées is dense, raw, and sensual. It is a record that collapses boundaries and creates new ones. It is, in the truest sense, alive.

Complices dans Parquet, qu’ils rayent allègrement, actifs partout où la traverse prend, Seb Brun (drums & electronics) et Simon Henocq (guitar & electronics) tissent sur Vallées des formes électroniques expérimentales où leurs instruments délibérément traités errent à leur guise. Je vous préviens de suite, il faut suivre. Le bref COIL grésille d’emblée sur des louvoiements exigeants, mais qu’on pressent immersifs. Avec TRIM on entre de plain-pied dans la vif du sujet, une pincée de tribal s’invite et la récurrence des plans, soudainement variable toutefois, trace des bazars sonores qui une fois domptés incitent au retour. Le constat est entériné par SHORE, où l’on s’échoue sur des soubresauts sans genre mais dotés de style. Seb Brun & Simon Henocq défont, leurs Vallées rejettent le tout tracé. FALAISES, en phases hagardes, éthérées, poursuit l’entreprise d’échappe. VERS / QUIET, de ces mêmes hoquets qui flirtent là avec l’indus, assène avec bruit divin l’approche des deux hommes.

J’y reste scotché, par ma fenêtre ouverte j’en drape les rares passants. ÉLÉMENTS syncope les siens, l’électro conçue par Seb & Simon s’immole de textures novatrices qui en font la matrice. VALLÉES hausse le rythme, l’ensemble fascine et sans prévenir part en vrille. HARBOUR itou, dépaysant. BLOC crache ses ruades, urgentes, démentes. J’adhère totally. FISSURE titube, court, pour ensuite laisser LIGHTHOUSE droner. Celui-ci étend le trip, pour le coup brumeux. Puis WHISPER, qui lui aussi et ultimement te rentre dans le bide et te vrille l’occiput, impose ses sautes d’humeur, dans les sonorités comme sur le plan rythmique. Vallées est passionnant, il en perdra en chemin mais qu’importe, il se destine quoiqu’il en soit à la caste de ceux qui fuient la soumission.

Read the article here.

Habitués aux scènes communes dans le rock techno de PARQUET notamment, ce disque est la rencontre étourdissante entre le guitariste Simon HENOCQ et le batteur Seb BRUN. 

Le premier est un maître d'une électronique tout aussi fine que puissante, membre fondateur de Coax, et le deuxième un tordu du trigger branché physiquement à ses cymbales et autres toms mais aussi fondateur du très aventureux label lyonnais CARTON Records. 

Ces deux là sont friands de tout ce qui traite d'électronique et en général de tout ce qui a trait au vocabulaire maîtrisant les ventres et les nœuds des ondes. 

Ainsi, brancher quelques triggers sur les toms ou au plus profond du coffre de sa guitare pourra toujours rendre un substrat dans lequel de nombreuses histoires magiques et électriques s'y développeront à force de jeu, de malaxage et d'expérimentations. 

Des histoires aux couleurs sombres de préférence. Le noir ici est tranchant et la substance épaisse voire musclée pour des cerveaux bien acides. 

Ca tombe bien.

Tout le monde ne peut pas créer cette musique. Une musique très physique, à l'instar du dernier disque solo de Simon HENOCQ. Certes la techno a disparu dans ce duo,  les rythmiques sont plus syncopées, toujours triturées électroniquement dans le rouge de la disto, avec par endroit des voiles de synthés qui s'envolent en arrière plan. Quelques vagues sur des plages métalliques s'étalent devant nous dans de véritables triturages électroniques de films de science fiction. Quand je parle de plages, j'y entends aussi du grain, qu'il soit pluie ou sable, ces fines particules saupoudrent ce disque d'une saveur très pimentée, j'aime beaucoup les rythmiques, j'aime beaucoup les plages sonores, enfin je crois que j'aime vraiment beaucoup cette musique où ma tête et tout mon corps se font autant finement bringuebaler que douloureusement caresser dans des univers sombres froids et complètement tordus.