NATASHA PIRARD - Fernande, Cecile

The unbearable nature of a submerged sadness that annihilates while nature all around suggests life, rebirth, essence: in Natasha Pirard's microcosm filters the image of a family carousel brought to a halt, a "wreck" to be exorcised no matter how things turn out.

"Fernande, Cecile" is an autobiographical work, both in its references and in its perception of sound as an escape from a loss that stands for a hidden yet damnably alive disillusionment. Eight movements dedicated to her mother and grandmother trace the outlines of a photo album, linking images and field recordings, synthesizers and violins.

Trained at Ghent University, Pirard boasts a classical background that she has gradually developed, moving between historical music theory and contemporary experimentation, drawing inspiration in particular from Steve Reich's phase shifting and from Mica Levi's approach.

The Belgian musician lost her grandmother, Fernande, at the age of seven, but her hugs and her energy somehow are still a part of her. Her mother, Cecile, meanwhile, is the anchor that holds everything together in the moments when the tide swells, presenting a bill that is mostly bitter.

The terrible psychological and emotional decline brought on by the Alzheimer's her grandmother suffered from is the spectre that lurks within the folds of a record blending electroacoustic music and minimalism. "If, at some point, I too should have this disease, don't forget that I'm still here (inside)", her mother tells her. It's a confession that also becomes the pretext for bringing to life scores that are both celestial and bucolic, in which the most authentic motherhood - which not everyone is lucky enough to experience - is mere fuel.

The deeply private starting point from which Pirard chooses to begin her journey could certainly, on paper, be a boomerang, as happens, for instance, in almost all the family-driven novels that have been clogging up bookshops since time immemorial. But it's a calculated risk, and thankfully one she sidesteps with a light touch, never cluttering the scene with elements ill-suited to the sound or moments that feel like secret-diary confessions.

Grandma's garden in full bloom, just like the fruit laid out in the sun, resurfaces among Pirard's thoughts and turns into music, through delicate looping phrasing and imperceptible rhythms that unsettle the edges of things. It's in this deconstruction of her own emotional world that shards of light and shadow alternate, metaphorizing the presence and absence of her own lived experience. Domestic field recordings, like the chirping of grandma's favourite bird flying through the air or the accelerated beat of a heart, often introduce Pirard's distant, near-mortally wounded siren song ("La tristesse insoutenable").

Produced and mixed by David and Stephen Dewaele (Soulwax/2manydjs), the album is divided into two parts, dedicated respectively to Fernande and Cecile, and accordingly reveals just as many different perceptions from the composer, perpetually poised between longing and gratitude, wonder and skepticism. After all, there is no word that could express the feelings of a fragile soul who has decided to begin right where everything pointed only to an ending.

Turning to music was the only possible choice for Natasha Pirard, who, after the dry run of "Dream Cycles", effectively makes her debut in the vast, seemingly more metaphysical world of ambient music, with a deeply personal and at the same time courageous voice. Drawing a parallel, one might here and there invoke the equally private memories of Alessandro Cortini in that marvel that is "Forward", in some ways the work emotionally closest to "Fernande, Cecile".

What remains, though, is Pirard's absolute singularity in weaving together fluctuations of her own that at times comfort and elsewhere crush, in one of the most intimately compact ambient records of recent years.

Ride the wave of great music

Add OndaRock to your favorite sources on Google Discover. Don't miss our reviews, milestones and latest news straight in your feed.

Follow on Google

03/12/2025