Le Coup de Grâce

This the catalogue for the 2006 Quinzaine de Bande Dessinée collecting the works from a large number of comics artists directed by Xavier Lowenthal and myself. The anthology is introduced with the following proclamation: “We long for startling transitions, improbable links, new kinds of narrative associations. We find conventional narrative functions boring and stifling.” From the participation call, one can feel a glimpse towards a conceptual approach to comics. Thierry Groensteen decribes the anthology as following: On the publisher’s website the ambition that inspires the authors is described in ore detail: We aim to invent new proposals for narrative articulation between the images. These transitions will not be “functional” but will operate on a poetic, visual, and formal level through likeness of metaphor. Because meaning is not a matter of cause and effect leading up to narrative resolution. Because meaning does not lie in clarification.” These words summarize, in exemplary fashion, the historical situation as experienced by many young artists today. This conjuncture has produced heightened awareness that comic art is not ontologically destined only to perpetuate a canonical model dominated by the categories of narration and legibility, but that its spatio-topical apparatus for the display of images- lend themselves to the exploration of new forms, new configurations, new ambitions.

Belgium: La Cinquieme Couche | 144 pages | softcover edition | CMYK | 2006 | 240mm x 335mm | SOLD OUT

Un Monde un peu Meilleur

Jean-Christophe Menu, in Plates Bandes. asked the question of the format as the most salient aspect of the French comic book industry. Menu christened the national industrial standard for comic books in the french-speaking market: 48CC, is the abbreviation for a forty-eight-page hardbound full-color printed album, whose predecessor can be found in children’s books from the 1950s and that has now been largely adopted by mainstream publishers Dupuis, Dargaud, Lombard and Casterman for their serialized narratives. In the center of the book standardization process in the publishing microcosm, Menu blamed the corporate ethos of publishers, and the retailers who did not have much use for L’Association’s extra-ordinary formats. The ubiquity of the 48CC format, and the various camp practices organized around its collections and discussions, could be seen as an impoverishment compared to previous publishing practices, where a multitude of different formats, layouts, technical features constituted a much more varied publishing landscape against the uniform landscape of a “monoculture”. It certainly functioned also as an insulation from the larger book industry where purposely comics in french are not described as books but as albums. The standardization of the comics album that took place in the 80s came, according to Menu, as a natural step of the withdrawal of the Author. Mainstream comics are no longer described so much as author productions but as situated in a constellation of descriptives and production categories, such as Genres, Heroes, Series and album Formats (Menu, 2005, p.18). Menu capitalizes all those terms, ironically conferring them equal value as the Author’s name. Nonetheless, his manifesto historicized the consolidation of the mainstream, as an important step towards the creation of the authorial ethos and the rediscovery of the avant-garde in comics, a term that might produce the counter-effect of further confining comics to the status of a paraliterary medium (Baetens, 2012), buffering any meaningful exchange with other book arts and publishing practices.

This is an unauthorized, literally “stretched” facsimile version of Levis Trondheim Un Monde Un Peu Meilleur. After becoming Chief Editor of legendary art comics publishing house L’Association, Trondheim’s publishes his commercial series under the new 48CC imprint as a way to deface his predecessor Jean-Christophe Menu, and to gentrify his polemical stance against the industrial formats in commercial comics. My pirate edition is a retaliation on the very same site of dispute, a monstrous mutation of the original book that contributes to bring to the question of format the sustained attention required from the entire community of comics artists: the format in comics as the medium’s main political mode of address.

Belgium: La Cinquieme Couche | 48 pages | hardcover edition | CMYK | 2020 | 290mm x 290mm | SOLD OUT

Glacial: Entropy EP

Glacial are the joint project of renowned Greek techno/house producer Giorgos Lemos -simply known as Lemos – and saxophonist / experimental artist Ilan Manouach. Their debut was a self-titled LP on the Hotel Costes series, released to critical acclaim in the beginning of 2012. Ricardo Villalobos called it “the album of his dreams” while the media described its’ abstract, minimal, dubby, jazzy electronic music as ‘hardcore lounge’, ‘elevator techno’. Entropy, almost three years after that, is Glacial’s return with a two-track EP on a 12’’ vinyl, taking a dancefloor-friendly turm. On side A we are greeted by the epic fifteen-minute-long dub techno monster of “Entropy”. Don’t let that sweet jazzy intro misguide you, as the track builds and builds to reach monstrous heights of energy, full of sub-basses and screaming horns, ideal for both peak-time or after-hours action. “Stoya” on Side B is deeper, moody and minimal with a great groovy loop. Jazzy elements all over set the tone and when the break comes, Ilan’s saxophone shines through like a blister in the sun. “Stoya” was recently included in Mary Ann Hobb’s playlist for BBC Radio. A side | Entropy | B side | Stoya 12” vinyl EP | 2015 6DOGS Records | SOLD OUT

Glacial: Hotel Costes CD

Glacial are the joint project of renowned Greek techno/house producer Giorgos Lemos -simply known as Lemos – and saxophonist/experimental artist Ilan Manouach. Their debut was a self-titled LP on the Hotel Costes series, released to critical acclaim in the beginning of 2012. Ricardo Villalobos called it “the album of his dreams” while the media described its’ abstract, minimal, dubby, jazzy electronic music as ‘hardcore lounge’, ‘elevator techno’. 

CD | 2012 | SOLD OUT

Balinese Beast LP

Self-released in may 2011. 44 minutes of spurts coming from a hacked remote control. Nukie, a TV-addict. Offset Cover, 3 different B&W offset inlets, edition of 287. Mastered By Rashad Bekker.

Track listing: A side｜Sai Sai Baba, Sunflower Milk, Judy’s Bounce, Oranges Apples, Sotos, Pepper Jiggy, Torrent Bust, Amy & Jordan. B side｜Percussion & Knowledge, Omega Launch, Zeta Lunch, Beta Legs, Phily Pop, Bubble Lover. 12” vinyl LP | 2011 | BB Records | SOLD OUT

Soft Offerings 7”

Balinese Beast’s Soft Offerings was released on November 2011. It has three tracks of frenetic cut-up action, with intense chopped up rhythms coming from analogue treated feedbacks and overdrived saxophones. 4 color offset cover, 2 different b&w offset inlets in 2-color stock paper. Edition of 287. Recorded live at “Olga’s Laundry” Athens, Greece. Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D&M, Berlin.

Track listing: A Side | My Heart Belongs to Bali. B Side | Acropolis, adieux, Summer memo 7” vinyl single | 2011 | BB Records | SOLD OUT

Balinese Beast-TBC & Guy Saldanha 7”

Thunderbird Hotel was released on July 2013. 7″vinyl and has two tracks. Balinese Beast play: volcanic cut-ups, overdriven sax, 2″ samples, pop ‘n roll chews & chops following a cicada sine heatwave. TBC & Guy Saldanha play: textured and skillful noise wall, distorted guitars, feedbacks & analogue in/outs. 4 color offset labels & cover. Edition of 200. Track listing: Balinese Beast Delivery Dream. TBC & Guy Saldanha: Cross Eyed Dragon 7” vinyl single | 2013 | BB Records | SOLD OUT

Les Géométries Souterraines LP

Balinese Beast / Fusiller. Les Géometries Souterraines [Split 12] on fine French label [tanzprocesz] brings together (or fences off – depending on how you look at it), French gonzo electronics project Fusiller (Jonathan T. who runs [tanzprocesz] and is also one half of Opéra Mort) and Greek free sax and home-brewed electronics duo Balinese Beast. Fusiller’s side starts off with a snippet of some feedback shrieks, sci-fi effects and cryptic, distorted mumbled vocals that set the standard for what’s gonna follow. Gloomy atmosphere, created by concrete electronics and supreme tape work, blends with a slew of repetitive patterns, epileptic lo-fi synth lines and weirdo bleeps, resulting in a confusing, trance-like state of insanity. Balinese Beast (George Axiotis and Ilan Manouach), deliver their most refined version of their bona fide cut-ups and electronics. This time they offer a more beat-driven material, like the opening track “Sensorimotor Schemes” that rotates around a stable rhythmic structure with short high-pitched sounds, abstract noises, samples and loose sax grooves that emerge and then dissolve in no time. Their trademark sound collage of feedback, two-penny effects, mixing-board abuse, perverted exotica and cartooney reeds is always present. Only this time it merges with more steady structures, like on “Police Photoshop Disaster” where a repetitive cheapo thrash metal riff meets sax’s echoed minced words and builds up to a chaotic crescendo.

Track listing: Balinese Beast: Sensorimotor Schemes, Natural Soil, Palace of Thai, Tundra of Malice, Police Photoshop Disaster, Fusiller Fusiller. Fusiller: 1, 2, 3, 4 12” split LP | 2013 | BB Records & [tanzprocesz] | SOLD OUT

Balinese Beast-Wham Jah LP

A long time in the works, we finally drop off a true early 2010’s Athens underground artifact. Two of the most active Greek bands, Balinese Beast (the cut-up stomp-punch destruction duo of Ilan Manouach and Giorgos Axiotis) and Wham Jah (the free-form rambunctious electrical mayhem of Pavlos Gkousios, Kostadis Michail and Panagiotis Spoulos) deliver two sides of an eye-sparkling platter filled w/ energy, persistence, baffle and soothing noise. Two entirely different approaches, one strong heart endorsing in musical poodle-like affection. Edition of 300 copies w/ stamped labels, offset covers and offset obi-strips housed in a heavy duty poly sleeve. Track Listing: Balinese Beast: Distemper, Veterinarian Report, Rabies, 104 degrees, Preventive measure, CPV, Yellowish / Brownish, Fecal Matter. Wham Jah: Hip Dysplasia 12” vinyl LP | 2011 | BB Records, Phase | SOLD OUT

Glacial EP

Following releases from Kreon and Lemos, Equivalence returns for its third record with the jazz-infused crossover sound of Glacial. George Laimos (aka Lemos) and Ilan Manouach have spent years crafting a style that combines sultry live instrumentation with subtle electronics in a unique yet natural meeting point between tradition and innovation. In 2012 they released their defining moment to date, a long player on the Welcome To Masomenos helmed Hotel Costes series, while more recently they appeared on Six D.O.G.S with the Entropy EP. Opening this latest offering from the pair, ‘Hardcore Lounge’ is a defining track for the concept of Glacial, characterised by Manouach’s smoky horn tones calling out over a bed of intricate percussion and found sounds that capture the mood of a dimly lit speakeasy in a strange part of town. By way of contrast ‘Byron’s Groove’ lets the drums take the lead, laying down a delicate and expressive house groove with tribal undertones. The details and dynamics of the track build with a patient focus, creating an immersive atmosphere populated with alien frequencies. The ‘Dub Mix’ of ‘Hardcore Lounge’ completes the EP with a lopsided groove that nags at the brain while appealing to the body, pushing another tightly wound array of rhythmic elements that rub up against organic scrapes and shuffles in a most distinctive abstraction of contemporary dance music. With its fusion of human and electronic soul, this latest transmission from Glacial further establishes the duo as an exciting force within the more experimental corners of the house and techno community, paying respect to the music of the past while reaching forwards into previously unexplored territory. EP | 2016 | SOLD OUT