{"title":"Michele Mercure","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"rervng12","title":"Michele Mercure - Beside Herself","description":"\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eCAT: ReRVNG12 \/ FTS011\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRelease Date:\u003cbr\u003eNovember 09, 2018 (digital)\u003cbr\u003eNovember 09, 2018 (physical)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eMichele Mercure\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan\u003e often dreams of music, and in her waking life, reclaims fragments of these fleeting, floating melodies in her compositions and sound art. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBeside Herself\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, an anthology of Mercure’s self-produced and distributed cassettes released between 1983 and 1990, collects these dreamlike passages and lo-fi nocturnes, preserving the qualities of discovery and intimacy surrounding their genesis.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMercure’s sound is a porous electronic art that overlaps ambient, abstract, and industrial sensibilities – its spaciousness reveals an artist attuned cinematically rather than for radio play or public performance. She approached the latter theatrically, and rarely, disdaining most live shows as too serious, and bringing her music to bare on her audiences in playful, immersive contexts. On recordings, Mercure’s night lit synth music evokes non-confined environments, at once expressionistic and minimal and always aware of its surroundings.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMercure was a busy collaborator during the years surveyed by \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBeside Herself\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, making music for theater, performance, film, and TV animation, yet it was through her self-released cassettes that she established her music among like-minded artists abroad. Circulated through tape-trading networks assisted by insightful reviews in \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003eEurock\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, a seminal music magazine covering progressive rock and electronic music scenes, these album-length releases included \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan\u003eRogue and Mint\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e (1983), \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA Cast of Shadows \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e(1984), \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDreams Without Dreamers\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e (1985), and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDreamplay\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e (1990). Though unvarnished in fidelity (and now scarcely seen), these tapes showcased Mercure’s transportive aptitude within and beyond the limited sound recording medium.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMercure’s artistic path never ran through creative meccas New York, San Francisco or Los Angeles. Raised in Springfield, Massachusetts, and then moving to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in her twenties, Mercure was already an adept musician when she encountered a local and lively theater scene, and was asked to score an unorthodox performance of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWaiting for Godot\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e. The experience was pivotal in marrying music and image for Mercure, and so she began making music for film, television, dance, and theater. It wasn’t until a long sojourn in Eindhoven, however, that she became transfixed by electronic music (ala \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003eConrad Schnitzler\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, whom she would correspond with for years) that would inform her music to come.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAcoustic elements such as voice and stringed instruments add a haunting lyricism to the non-tonal space unoccupied by electronic presence in Mercure’s music. The graduality of phrasing and measured sequence of tones also distinguish her music from the repetition and improvisation-heavy hallmarks of the Kosmische genre, a stylistic antecedent for the artist. Mercure’s fascination, or obsession, with new, consumer conscious music technology is demonstrated in her inventive sequencing and sampling, adding a mechanical, sometimes menacing, feel to \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBeside Herself\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMercure’s contemporaries became the kindred minds of the Eurock “scene” such as \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Nightcrawlers\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan\u003e,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eLauri Paisley\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003eDon Slepian\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan\u003e. It was in association with Paisley and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003ePauline Anna Strom\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan\u003e that Eurock featured Mercure in an article titled “Women Synthesists” in 1986. The three artists all shared a bravura for homespun, self-produced electronic music that looked beyond pop conventions for a higher plane of avant-gardism or musical spirituality. Not long after the article went to print, Mercure offered \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan\u003eEye Chant\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, her standalone vinyl album self-released in 1987.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBeside Herself\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e extends RVNG Intl.’s preservation efforts to sister label \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003eFreedom To Spend\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan\u003e who reissued \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan\u003eEye Chant\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e in 2017, an occasion marking just over twenty years since its original release on Mercure’s own Quick Shower Music. (\u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan\u003eEye Chant\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, and the cassettes surveyed on \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBeside Herself\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, were originally credited to Michelle Musser, the name which the artist used until a divorce in 1987).\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe anthological scope of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBeside Herself\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e joins \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan\u003eEye Chant\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e to restore the canon of Mercure’s arresting dream-music, revisiting this anomalous creator’s breakthrough material.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan\u003e Beside Herself\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e will be released on double LP, CD, and digital formats on November 9, 2018. The set features liner notes by \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003eEmily Pothast\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan\u003eand an incredible array of unseen photography and ephemera of the era.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ciframe width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qr3QzXRRJ9o\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ciframe width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZEQCxwMfQ0o\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ciframe width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/A2B-O6v5W_8\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e","brand":"ReRVNG12","offers":[{"title":"DIGITAL - $10","offer_id":17650564726853,"sku":"RERVNG12DIGI","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"DBL LP - $30","offer_id":13130827857989,"sku":"RERVNG12LP","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"CD - $15","offer_id":13130827825221,"sku":"RERVNG12CD","price":15.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0026\/6993\/6709\/products\/RERVNG12_-_Digital_Cover_-_1500px.png?v=1539119262"},{"product_id":"fts001","title":"Michele Mercure - Eye Chant","description":"\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eCAT: FTS001\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRelease Date:\u003cbr\u003eMarch 3, 2017 (digital)\u003cbr\u003eFebruary 3, 2017 (physical)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYou can see the sounds her voice makes. The literal depiction of this, a photograph of \u003cstrong style=\"font-size: 15px;\"\u003eMichele Mercure\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 15px;\"\u003e with an eyeball in her mouth, is removed in the updated album art. The original graphic elements are left to suspend, speak, and sing across time. In the absence of the decade-specific portraits, the redesigned edition is dislocated from a particular or linear history. Our initial point of encounter is artifactual; a trace in place of a scar.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAccordingly, Michele’s true image and body is sound. \u003cem\u003eEye Chant\u003c\/em\u003e, as a whole, offers meditations of sound as material. Her instruments are voice and synthesizer, the former following the machine’s lead and language of patterns. Machine sounds become abstract words. The human voice is pulled apart, dislodged from context; a tactile, textured quality appears to reconfigure the body and machine presently or permanently.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe natural and the mechanical elements of \u003cem\u003eEye Chant\u003c\/em\u003e commingle with the ease of a musician well-versed in the social-material entanglements of life. Like the lacework referenced in one track, Mercure's record alludes to interconnections and their unraveling. Her married name formerly attached to \u003cem\u003eEye Chant\u003c\/em\u003e has been shed for this iteration. As her electronic kin, \u003cstrong\u003eEliane Rodigue\u003c\/strong\u003e and \u003cstrong\u003eSuzanne Ciani\u003c\/strong\u003e would attest, it’s all raw material for the musician to give form. \u003cstrong\u003eDonna Haraway\u003c\/strong\u003e and \u003cstrong\u003eLucy Suchman\u003c\/strong\u003e may have been listening.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMichele offers a tender mechanics to attune to. Atmospheres expand and contract within a song, sometimes reappearing in the album - the economy of means appreciated from another vantage. Loops and undulating rhythms build up a particular kind of surface, one that places the listener in the present moment, to notice and extend that time of being here.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTo get a sense of the space Mercure’s work occupies: compositions on this album were part of a PBS special and a performance artist’s production. The most narrative moments of \u003cem\u003eEye Chant\u003c\/em\u003e, these commissioned pieces, “Proteus and the Marlin” and “100% Bridal Illusion,” are hyper feminine tracks made up of choirs of birds, breath, baby cries, waves, and poetry read just above a whisper.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe title track, “Eye Chant,” is a single vocal sample that’s sequenced and melodically layered upon itself. A perfect minimal composition, where there’s no excess blurring how it was made and its final crystalline form. “Too Much” closes the album with some danceability. We have traveled far from the start — “Tour de France,” where the synthesizer resembles a faucet drip and we reset — to the pace of our heart and breath.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen focused on the moment the mind wanders as it likes. It feels as though there's a collective and urgent need to decelerate. Rather than chasing the new sound or accelerating discovery, deceleration allows us to pay heed to what's less heard. Finding our time in continuum with others’ might be one of many impulses for reissues.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOne way to interpret the name, Freedom to Spend, is an abundance of freedom that needs to be shared. In that spirit, the free thinking \/ art of Michele Mercure is recirculated. \u003cem\u003eEye Chant\u003c\/em\u003e is available February 3, 2017.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ciframe width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/yvH4QYIQ9pA\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"FTS001","offers":[{"title":"DIGITAL - $10","offer_id":13131017420869,"sku":"FTS001DIGI","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP - $24","offer_id":13131017388101,"sku":"FTS001LP","price":24.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0026\/6993\/6709\/products\/FTS001_COVER_600x600_9c576977-c6c9-4ae6-a7c5-241580ac54cf.jpg?v=1535219466"},{"product_id":"michele-mercure-pictures-of-echoes","title":"Michele Mercure - Pictures of Echoes","description":"\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eCAT: ReRVNG16 \/ FTS016\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRelease Date: May 8, 2020\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e Pictures of Echoes\u003c\/em\u003e is an intimate answer to \u003cem\u003eBeside Herself\u003c\/em\u003e, the 2018 anthology of music from \u003cstrong\u003eMichele Mercure’s\u003c\/strong\u003e self-produced and distributed cassettes. \u003cem\u003ePictures of Echoes\u003c\/em\u003e picks up where \u003cem\u003eBeside Herself\u003c\/em\u003e left off, collecting key moments from Mercure’s solo releases and collaborative, cross-disciplinary work, and restoring the recordings for a new digital age while employing the medium which originally transported these sounds. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSurveying the efforts of a decade, from passages of her 1983 debut \u003cem\u003eRouge \u0026amp; Mint\u003c\/em\u003e to themes from her score for \u003cstrong\u003eMary Haverstick's\u003c\/strong\u003e 1993 film \u003cem\u003eShades of Black\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003ePictures\u003c\/em\u003e places brooding instrumental sketches next to ceremonious and cinematic compositions, sculpted from an arsenal of beloved synthesizers, drum machines, and samplers, live acoustic accompaniments, and her trusty Atari ST. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003ePictures of Echoes\u003c\/em\u003e is a word painting for the technological transposition from analogue memory into digital collection, a process of reimagining the past and giving new life to earlier work. Mercure’s creative evolution has been led by loyalty to homespun and DIY practices, to self and collaborative production and the embrace of eccentricity and unorthodoxy. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFinding a foundation on the fringe, her work merges sound and image in the site of community, composing music for films, dance collaborations and avant garde theater productions as well as her own editions. Projects from each of these corners are present in this supplementary survey, which moves from counter Kosmische to experimental expressionism. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAvailable as a cassette or digital experience under the joint \u003cstrong\u003eRVNG\u003c\/strong\u003e and \u003cstrong\u003eFreedom to Spend\u003c\/strong\u003e banner, \u003cem\u003ePictures of Echoes\u003c\/em\u003e is an integral part of the mercurial journey through Michele’s archive, which began with FTS’s 2017 reissue of \u003cem\u003eEye Chant\u003c\/em\u003e, the label’s inaugural release.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ciframe width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/aTZVjDyzLmM\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e","brand":"ReRVNG16","offers":[{"title":"DIGITAL - $9","offer_id":32222158946367,"sku":"ReRVNG16DIGI","price":9.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Cassette + Pin - $12 - Sold Out","offer_id":32222177394751,"sku":"ReRVNG16CS","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0026\/6993\/6709\/products\/RERVNG16-FTS016-Digital-Cover-1500px.png?v=1586903160"}],"url":"https:\/\/igetrvng.com\/collections\/michele-mercure.oembed","provider":"RVNG Intl.","version":"1.0","type":"link"}