Fat-Cat Rec. 
Ensemble : Ensemble -collaborations with Lou Barlow & Cat Power- (F/US/UK/D,2006)****'
Although Olivier Alary had send firstly a demo before to Fat-cat Records, (“it was the first demo we ever received" the label states), Olivier finished his first album for Rephlex Records in 2000, called ‘Sketch Proposals’. This led to some writing collaborations with Björk, along with several remixes of her work. Of course that experience might have influenced this second album. As vocalists, Chan Marshall from Catpower (on “Disown, Delete”), Lou Barlow from Sebadoh & Dinosaur Jr (on “One Kind Two Minds”), UK based Mileece (on Summerstorm” and “All we leave behind”) and Camille Claverie (on Loose”) were attracted. Adam Pierce (Mice Parade) plays drums, and Erik Hove sax on “Summerstorm”.
The titletrack, “Summerstorm” is loaded from energy, with some electronic rhythms, distorted recording effects, strings and a bit of trumpet, with a sound and new century modern rich production comparable to Sufjan Stevens, Tunng, The Books, and many more of the winners with acoustic and some electronic elements and beautiful vocal arrangements, also Ensemble really is such a perfect winner. The full-massive production and ideas are almost stunningly perfect. This incredible track builds up to a layer with beautiful hysterical trumpet. Wonderful !! The combination of song and the ideas with sounds is done very playfully and with a lot of care. The so called noise related elements are always very clever, like some malfunction and sound manipulations, natural sounds as beautiful material-like drones like rain with wind and seashores. Analogue (?) keyboards are used for ambient touches. The chosen popfolk voices gives human hearted emotionality through the voice, with a calm intuitive soulful effect. Also the few orchestrations performed by the Babelsberg Film Orchestra in Germany by Johannes Malfatti are also worth giving extra praise to, especially on the wonderful “Loose”, Recommended !
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