Pierre Rousseau

CAT# PR002
Release date: June 23, 2023

Pierre Rousseau’s Mémoire De Forme completes a cycle of three statements, initiated with Musique Sans Paroles (2020) and followed by Mode Par D​é​faut (2021), while marking a newfound freedom for the Paris-based artist to experience his music as a listener as much as a creator. Informed by his prolific work as a composer and sound designer for film and a personal growth, Mémoire De Forme gently observes the past to inform the present.

A journey of self re-definition that traveled Rousseau to and through the inner core of compositional and sonic processes that he had yearned to spend time with for years, the triptych of EPs established the foundations of what music-making could mean, and sound like, beyond his previous group (the beloved duo Paradis), the growth away from tangible references toward authorship and agency, and finally, an arrival at a simultaneously reflective and future bound sound.

The six tracks of Mémoire De Forme were written and recorded quickly, if not channeled. A thought lingered in the back of Rousseau’s mind to “sanitize, rationalize, and organize” the spontaneous sounds, but what was in front of him, in listening meditatively to the music on loop, was in no need of perseveration. This simple gesture of letting go, or letting be, represents not only Rousseau’s evolution as an artist, but an evolution of self through a reconnection of body and mind.

Both in concept and musically, Mémoire De Form examines duality. Soft and hard sound, low and high fidelity, compressed and uncompressed data all commingle, echoing a quest for balance, or an acceptance of the beauty of this tension inherent to life. This coexistence is echoed technically in an employment of anachronistic gear together. For instance, a TEAC A3340-S reel-to-reel, paired with the Korg SE-500 tape echo, and the latest applications of Max For Live.