2006年末に設立された東京のレコード・レーベル。
the nation’s premier label for hushed music – Pitchfork
Flau releases are sonically quite diverse, from acoustic folk to dream pop and complex drum experiments. And though eclectic, never before has a label’s oeuvre come together to so closely sound the way a cherry blossom looks – The FADER
one of the biggest names in the world of really small sounds…the perfect soundtrack to a Sunday evening – Timeout Tokyo
consistently impressive – XLR8R
Flau has associated itself with a signature sound…association with Flau suggests a superior level of pop craftsmanship…What’s remarkable about Fukuzono’s project, which launched at the end of 2006, is that he’s achieved quality control without uniformity – exclaim!
Flau has shown that sometimes silence beats flashiness – METROPOLIS Magazine
flau seem to have a magic touch; everything they put out..has a celestial, positively glowing aura about it that has us longing for more..sonically the label is incredibly diverse, but what its releases share in common are a playful curiosity, an unmatchable quality and a genre-bending commitment to evoking time and space within their sounds – DUMMY
Flau label casts its net across a worldwide community of artists with a particular affection for fragile arrangements and microscopic songwriting…A reliable resource for all the finest, quirkiest exploratory electronic pop music – Boomkat
it combines genuine emotion with a sense of playfulness – Fluid Radio
everyone’s favourite Japanese label and, of course, we make no exception – Going Solo
constantly surprising, consistently stunning – Dummy
un monde de l’infiniment fragile et doux – Ondefixe
one of our favourite labels – Textura
Flau are one of those unassuming labels, which since 2007 have been quietly making their way in the world releasing a diverse range of high quality albums…their roster of international artists blend field recordings, acoustic instruments, microsounds, and voice, in a sound that has become truly synonymous with the label – Furthernoise
worth finding – Foxy Digitalis
grow, pushing boundaries and releasing gems – Drifting, Almost Falling
An inner experience and pure fascination to little things concept and microscopic sounds. FLAU is the latest Label Of The Moment – Otsechka
the Tokyo label’s dreamy and cinematic aesthetic seems tailor-made for two favourite hobbies: idleness and letting the imagination run wild – Solar Flares
This label collects very particular artists from all over the world all under one roof that eclectically holds them together. Each artist is so unique, that you would like to read a whole book about them – PonyDanceClyde
2008-09 London, Cafe OTO
2009-09 Melbourne, Toff In Town
2010-08 Berlin, Altes Finanzamt
2012-05 Malaysia, Black Box Map
2012-05 Macau, LMA
2012-05 China Tour Beijing-Shanghai-Hangzhou
2012-06 Tokyo, Fujimigaoka Church & VACANT
2012-06 Kyoto, Metro
2013-04 London, Cafe OTO
2013-04 Berlin, Antje Øklesund
2013-12 Tokyo, VACANT
2016-03 Tokyo, VACANT
SEE FULL LIST
©FLAU
CAT No. FLAU84
Release Date: Japan - May 27th / Overseas - Apr 17th 2020
Format: CD/DIGITAL
フランスの作曲家Sylvain Chauveauの新しいアルバム「Life Without Machines」 は、バーネット・ニューマンの抽象画 「十字架の道行き」 シリーズを視覚的な楽譜として使用した短編作品集です。Sylvain Chauveauは静けさとスロウネスを重視し、エレクトロニクス、ピアノやギターといった楽器、時にはボーカルを用いた非常に最小限の構成で知られ、国内外様々なレーベルからリリース、世界各国でコンサートをを行ってきました。彼の新しいアルバムのタイトルである「Life Without Machines」は、私たちの生活が、エネルギーの永続的で膨大な使用を必要とする機械 によって完全にサポートされている、という事実を表現しています（大部分は化石燃料であり、その燃焼が絶えず二酸化炭素を大気に送る。タイトルは、このことが永遠に続くわけではないことを示唆しています）。より少ない機械、機械無しで生きることが、将来、集合的な決定になるか、またはエネルギー的にも経済的にも環境的にも、危機の組み合わせの結果になるかもしれません。
作曲はSylvain Chauveau、演奏はフランス人ピアニストのMelaine Dalibert。全15曲の作品ですが、トラックリストには14曲しか登場しません。これは15個の石があるが、どの角度から見ても最大で14個しか見えないという、京都・龍安寺の石庭を模したものです。 アルバムのライナーノーツはUbuWebの主宰で知られるKenneth Goldsmith。
After several years of working with Flau for releases of ensemble 0 (+ solo remixes) and Japan tours, FLAU asked me to make a full solo album for the label and I was excited by this idea.
I have composed for piano during a dozen of years (late 90s, 2000s). And in the early 2010s, it was time for me to explore other sounds. But after several years, I felt the need to come back to the piano, to go on with my obsession of quietness and silences. And to add a new dimension to my piano work: repetition and variations. And since a long time I wanted to work on very short format (“Short attention span is the new avant-garde”, once wrote Goldsmith).
I composed all the pieces but didn’t play them myself on the recording: it’s all performed by french pianist Melaine Dalibert. I didn’t want to play them myself because it required the skills of a professional pianist to make them sound as I wanted. Melaine was the perfect performer for this because he knows and understands very well this kind of music, and he played it with the precision of zen master.
There is a total of 15 pieces: 14 only will appear on the tracklist + 1 hidden track (hearable after a silence at the end of track 14). Like in the stone garden of Ryoanji in Kyoto – where there are 15 stones but from any point of view one can only see a maximum of 14 at the same time.
The title of the album, Life Without Machines, discusses the fact that our lives are entirely assisted by machines which require a permanent, colossal use of energy – mostly fossil fuels, whose combustion constantly sends CO2 to the atmosphere, causing climate change and global warming. French researcher Vincent Mignerot claims that, in order to prepare for the future consequences of ecological crisis and depletion of energy resources, 3 initiatives should be started: reducing our own incomes, sharing the wealth, and replacing machines by human labour.
The title of the pieces will display my love for concrete poetry. They are all ultra-short poems I wrote (in English) on the Greek island of Hydra, and then partly erased to keep only one or two letters for each piece. That’s why the tracklisting is like this.
-text by Sylvain Chauveau
meditative and refreshing, a clear counter-narrative to overproduced music – Popmatters
tranquil, meditative – Quietus
the sparseness can be devastatingly effective: like a series of fragments from a Conlon Nancarrow piece, slowed down and transformed into hypnotic minimalism – The Guardian
ultra-delicate, spaciously arranged solo piano work with the subtlest of electronic frills – Electronic Sounds
variously haunting, bittersweet, beautiful and surprisingly sorrowful – Juno Records
a delicate yet unbreakable minimalist meditation…a mysterious and silent beauty prevails, a nervous little one, a still almost virgin understanding of the power of contemplation – Tracker Magazine (album of the week!)
elegant, flawless, and masterful – Headphone Commute
Chauveau’s music will no doubt work for you better than Feldman – The Vinyl District
asilent immersion in an ocean of pure, crystalline sound – Ondarock
bare (and yet content), the music reverses itself, going back through the centuries and reverting to a time when one piano was more than enough. Nothing else is needed – Fluid Radio
thirteen gentle, brief solo piano works followed by a 12-minute ambient sound sculpture – if only life were this beautiful – The Moderns
a sharp 15-track collection of indeterminate, free-floating music – Norman Records
the search for an organic alternative, a passage towards an elsewhere devoid of constraints and electronics, a return to an essential charged with soothed vitality and serenity, inner contemplation and discovery…full of delicacy and refined nuances – SilenceAndSound
hypnotizing soundscapes and melodies – Ear Tapes
each short piece on the record shines with a stunningly emotive clarity…Emphasizing the moment and act of listening through a slowed approach, each short piece on the record shines with a stunningly emotive clarity–even as the collection’s title points to a more ominous imperative – LIVE EYE TV (10 Favorite Post-Everything Album)
minimal, emblematic effectiveness – Music Won’ts Save You/Rockerilla
…epitomizes minimalism, from the soft piano music to the album cover of a solitary bicycle wheel to the song titles, which read something like a cryptic e e cummings poem – Pop and Thistle
vignette feel and at times flicker of sound – Drifting, Almost Falling
in the tradition of Morton Feldman and John Cage from almost nothing, but of maximum effectiveness – Groove
un album tout en délicatesse et en nuances raffinées – Silence And Sounds
the piano miniatures – Benzine
delicate and shiny as cobwebs glistening in the dark…timeless music like this is needed more than ever – The Tempohouse
avant-garde ‘thoughtful’ piano…with a minimalist insight – Kiyi Muzik
Our oblivion of a life without machines does not imply that it never existed and that perhaps, once we reach the bottom of the dead end, we can’t try to reimagine it – Esoteros
Ce qu’ils murmurent est peut-être cette recherche continue d’une transcendance, dans l’ici et maintenant de l’écoute qui passe, mais qui procure, dans le même mouvement, la nostalgie et la promesse d’une vie lumineuse – Pincushion
研ぎ澄まされた美意識と音響へのこだわりを感じさせる (8/10) – Music Magazine
CAT No. FLAU84
Release Date: Japan - May 27th / Overseas - Apr 17th 2020
Format: CD/DIGITAL
フランスの作曲家Sylvain Chauveauの新しいアルバム「Life Without Machines」 は、バーネット・ニューマンの抽象画 「十字架の道行き」 シリーズを視覚的な楽譜として使用した短編作品集です。Sylvain Chauveauは静けさとスロウネスを重視し、エレクトロニクス、ピアノやギターといった楽器、時にはボーカルを用いた非常に最小限の構成で知られ、国内外様々なレーベルからリリース、世界各国でコンサートをを行ってきました。彼の新しいアルバムのタイトルである「Life Without Machines」は、私たちの生活が、エネルギーの永続的で膨大な使用を必要とする機械 によって完全にサポートされている、という事実を表現しています（大部分は化石燃料であり、その燃焼が絶えず二酸化炭素を大気に送る。タイトルは、このことが永遠に続くわけではないことを示唆しています）。より少ない機械、機械無しで生きることが、将来、集合的な決定になるか、またはエネルギー的にも経済的にも環境的にも、危機の組み合わせの結果になるかもしれません。
作曲はSylvain Chauveau、演奏はフランス人ピアニストのMelaine Dalibert。全15曲の作品ですが、トラックリストには14曲しか登場しません。これは15個の石があるが、どの角度から見ても最大で14個しか見えないという、京都・龍安寺の石庭を模したものです。 アルバムのライナーノーツはUbuWebの主宰で知られるKenneth Goldsmith。
After several years of working with Flau for releases of ensemble 0 (+ solo remixes) and Japan tours, FLAU asked me to make a full solo album for the label and I was excited by this idea.
I have composed for piano during a dozen of years (late 90s, 2000s). And in the early 2010s, it was time for me to explore other sounds. But after several years, I felt the need to come back to the piano, to go on with my obsession of quietness and silences. And to add a new dimension to my piano work: repetition and variations. And since a long time I wanted to work on very short format (“Short attention span is the new avant-garde”, once wrote Goldsmith).
I composed all the pieces but didn’t play them myself on the recording: it’s all performed by french pianist Melaine Dalibert. I didn’t want to play them myself because it required the skills of a professional pianist to make them sound as I wanted. Melaine was the perfect performer for this because he knows and understands very well this kind of music, and he played it with the precision of zen master.
There is a total of 15 pieces: 14 only will appear on the tracklist + 1 hidden track (hearable after a silence at the end of track 14). Like in the stone garden of Ryoanji in Kyoto – where there are 15 stones but from any point of view one can only see a maximum of 14 at the same time.
The title of the album, Life Without Machines, discusses the fact that our lives are entirely assisted by machines which require a permanent, colossal use of energy – mostly fossil fuels, whose combustion constantly sends CO2 to the atmosphere, causing climate change and global warming. French researcher Vincent Mignerot claims that, in order to prepare for the future consequences of ecological crisis and depletion of energy resources, 3 initiatives should be started: reducing our own incomes, sharing the wealth, and replacing machines by human labour.
The title of the pieces will display my love for concrete poetry. They are all ultra-short poems I wrote (in English) on the Greek island of Hydra, and then partly erased to keep only one or two letters for each piece. That’s why the tracklisting is like this.
-text by Sylvain Chauveau
