Alexandre Navarro - Arcane

After several ep releases on various labels and netlabels (mandorla, archipel, iod) since 2004, Alexandre Navarro is proud to release his first CD album "ARCANE" for SEM label. ARCANE means esoteric, hidden or mysterious... While not necessarily a conceptual approach for the album, ARCANE creates this sense of mystery through a blend of electric guitar experimentation, melody and field recordings. A guitarist since the age of 15, Alexandre Navarro has been working with electronic tools for several years (laptop, sampler, software...). For this album, however, he found it necessary to make more of a direct connection with the music; more organic, lofi and instrumental, where the guitar naturally played a central role throughout the recording of the album. With the exception of a few other instruments (organ, sampler, flutes), the album was exclusively recorded with a microphone, a guitar, a valve amp and some effects. In some ways, ARCANE has something tribal and primitive at its core. It is directand essential, addressing the mysteries of creation, birth, death, life in general, in a poetic and nostalgic way.


Playlist

01. Time
02. Primal
03. Karma Debut
04. Eolite
05. Mystical Lane
06. Awaken
07. Flying in a Dream
08. The Dawn
09. Arcane
10. Bulles

Time: 53:55 mns









Biography

/alexandrenavarro


Press kit

.zip


Reviews

VOXPOP

Pour faire vite , ce premier album laisse entrapercevoir un potentiel considérable (déjà présumé au travers des différents Ep produits ces 3 dernières années) tant cette poésie instrumentale, enlaçant nappes et arpèges éthérés de guitares à un minimum mais efficace chapelet d'effets électroniques et de fields recording, prend aux tripes (le bouleversant "Mystical Lane") et file le frisson ("The Dawn").
Tirant ainsi des perspectives optimistes sur des axes plutôt contondants, Navarro propose avec "Arcane" une musique downtempo qui, si elle s'acoquine sans soucis de quelques douceurs écarlates (l'idyllique ambient de "Time"), semble parfois bien au contraire préférer les recoins les plus sombres (l'inquiétant "Primal").
Des atmosphères ambivalentes faisant malgré tout bloc et définissant avec minutie les contours d'un espace, ajouré et intime, offert ici en partage.
Un beau geste donc, et de belles promesses. Que rêver de plus ?
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AUTRES DIECTIONS

Même si Alexandre Navarro est un habitué des netlabels (ses productions sont parues sur pour le compte de Mandorla, Archipel ou iod), l’écoute d’Arcane, son premier album disponible sur support physique, n’en constitue pas moins une véritable découverte. En effet, le parisien d’adoption a délaissé tout attribut électronique pour se concentrer sur des compositions célestes et organiques. Outre ce changement de cap, la production plus ambitieuse permet une qualité d’écoute qui sied bien mieux à ce type de musique. Arcane se dévoile ainsi de préférence sur une chaîne hi-fi et à un certain volume sonore. Mais, plus encore que ce pré-requis matériel, la musique de Navarro nécessite tout particulièrement une écoute à des moments bien particulier - de préférence, la nuit tombée et en solitaire. Alors les plages instrumentales tissées par cet orfèvre offrent une profondeur de champ insoupçonnée de prime abord. C’est que malgré, une instrumentation presque toujours réduite à son plus simple appareil (une guitare passée par le filtre d’effets divers et quelques habillages ambiant), ses compositions présentent une puissance évocatrice comparable à celles de Labradford. Chaque plage instrumentale dépasse allègrement le registre du simple field-recording, transcende le carcan de la musique ambiante minimale, en mettant en valeur le motif mélodique central. Fluide et sensuelle, la musique Alexandre Navarro joue sur la répétition et l’ondulation, pour mieux se lover au creux de l’intime.  
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ONDEFIXE

Longtemps affilié à la scène netaudio, auteur de divers eps disséminés sur de nombreux netlabels (Mandorla, Archipel…) Alexandre Navarro poursuit son aventure musicale en produisant cette fois un album destiné à être distribué en CD sur son label SEM. Si ce passage à la musique “en dur” ne change en rien sa conception de la musique, en revanche au niveau de la composition il se re-centre sur la guitare, instrument duquel il va tirer toute la substance pour donner vie aux dix compositions de l’album” Arcane”.
Délaissant pour un temps, on l’imagine, les compostions entièrement électroniques, Alexandre Navarro guitariste depuis toujours, a construit ce nouvel album autour de motifs de guitares passés au delay, retravaillés ensuite au laptop et auxquels il a ajouté des fields recordings (bruits de l’eau, des oiseaux…), des sonorités et parasites divers, ainsi que quelques sons d’instruments épars (flute, orgue…) que l’on pourra reconnaître ici ou là.
Il ne faudra donc pas plus deux ou trois écoutes pour constater tout le mystère et la beauté d’un album qui révèle une grande pureté et évoque, à la manière des musiques Labradford ou One Mile North, les grands espaces vierges naturels.
Album de guitare ambient par excellence, “Arcane” joue sur les effets de répétition, sur la progression, sur l’aspect enivrant produit par les harmonies claires et lumineuses qui se développent et qui nous enveloppent, tout entier, comme dans un cocon sonore des plus agréables qui soient.
“Arcane”, un album fait pour rêver.
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ROCK A ROLLA

Following a series of MP3 and CD-R releases, the first full-length CD release from French composer/guitarist Navarro on his own label SEM is a decidedly minimalist construction. Built almost entirely around soft guitar strums and laptop manipulations, plus the odd organ, flute and sampler for added layers, these 10 understated pieces of music are laced with moments of true beauty, as the gentle guitars build, loop and repeat around and within the wider electronic, cinematic ambience. Quite simply, wonderful. John S
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VAINZINE

So what is Arcane? It instantaneously reminded me of some of the greatest downtempo producers of recent times including Ulrich Schnauss. But without actually sounding like a copy cat artist. Navarro is undeniably musically gifted and has a concise knowledge of what sounds go together and harmonise effectively and efficiently creating a textured, detailed, diverse yet minimal downtempo, electronic, chill out sound that will appeal to all and sooth the soul. The opener 'Time' is a perfect example of Navarro's ability to mix music with intellectual prowess.
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TEXTURA

Though he's worked with electronic tools for many years, Paris-based guitarist Alexandre Navarro wanted to make a more immediate and direct connection with Arcane's material and so chose to strip the album's sound to its essence by using little more than guitar, microphone, valve amp, field recordings (nature sounds of birds and water), and effects (organ, flute, and sampler are used sparingly too). While “arcane” means “esoteric, hidden or mysterious,” the album material isn't actually mysterious at all if understood in that enigmatic sense; rather it constitutes an admirably direct and accessible listen. A guitarist since fifteen, Navarro could no doubt grandstand if he chose but he opts instead to construct meditative settings heavy on delicately woven textures and loops. The album begins quietly with dreamily atmospheric strums and graceful peals in “Time” and a similar delicate approach characterizes “Primal” with its spiraling guitar waves and bird chatter. Gentle clicks and ripples of static course through “Awaken” and “Mystical Lane,” both of which are rendered even more tranquil with the subtle addition of whispered flute melodies, while subtle organ touches help warm “Flying in a Dream.” Imagine Fennezs's extensive experimental tool-kit cleansed of rawness and distortion and instead deployed with the pursuit of placidity in mind and you're close to imagining Arcane's sound.
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ANGRY APE

Parisian imprint SEM Label impressed recently on debut outing The Green Kingdom, performed by Detroit-based musician Mike Cottone. The follow-up comes in the shape of, SEM co-founder, Alexandre Navarro’s ten-track 'Arcane' which, after years on the net-audio scene, is his first CD release. While Navarro sings from the same hymn sheet as Cottone, incorporating a fondness for lush, repetitive guitar textures, lingering found sounds and other soft nuances, 'Arcane' retains a distinctive edge that helps to separate each release, while staying true to the concepts of pastoral beauty founded upon SEM’s first issue. Navarro’s particularly pleasing brand of guitar and bucolic field recordings collaging feels as fresh as a crisp summer morning. The invigorating, cascading tranquility of pieces such as 'Time', 'Bulles' and 'Eoilte' ripple with shimmering harmonics much like a reflection of a sunrise across a river bed. The synth-like textures on 'Primal', although seemingly constructed using heavily treated guitar, reminds of German synth- pioneers Tangerine Dream especially around their 'Rubycon' phase. The title track, meanwhile, inspires imagery of nature, as Navarro weaves recordings of footsteps crunching through leafy field paths and landscapes strewn with freshwater streams, around a softly spun framework of gliding guitar. Both 'Awaken' and 'The Dawn', on the other hand, add depth and variety, with the former incorporating hisses of subtle static while the latter utilizes pulsing heartbeats to ensure 'Arcane' doesn’t stagnate for too long in the one area. Like Cottone’s Green Kingdom project, Alexandre Navarro displays an articulate talent for transporting the listener on a journey. A journey that is left entirely open to interpretation. Navarro simply paints his colours on a blank canvas leaving it exposed for you to fill in the blanks and discover his world all on your own.
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