EIC's 10Q's w/ Dale Cooper & Co.

"..like watching/slightly celebrating the beginning of the Industrial age evolving into the great depression, in slow-motion.."

Dale Cooper Quartet & The Dictaphones

Looming Attraction

Dale Cooper & Co. Bio:

Dale Cooper Quartet & The Dictaphones are the quartet made of musicians covering a wide variety of musical styles (they are former members of Tank, Osaka, TF and ex-groove combo Loupous) creates a music that mixes electronic (samples, cuts, sound treatments) and acoustic (guitars, saxophone, trumpet). They play moody ballads that sound as if they come out from one of David Lynch’s movies. Like in the Hollywood master of bizarre pieces, there is something like a dark and poisonous colour broken by red thunderlights and blue cigarette smoke. The music spawns some odd characters and landscapes while the listener makes out some more friendly faces that loom up out of this nowhere place: the voice of Zalie Bellaccico, Milanese streets sounds, a lazy flute, some distant breathing swim on the surface of this deep troubled waters. “Parole de Navarre” is an invitation for opening the red curtain of this Dark Jazz cabaret made of shimmering and whirling walls.

Hello, how are you?

Gael: Hi! I'm fine thanks!

Yannick: I'm OK.

Christophe: Fine, thanks and you?

EIC: I'm swell, thanks for asking;]

What are you currently listening to?

G: Right now I'm listening to Alva Noto & Ryuichi Sakamoto's "Reverso"

Y: I'm into Sacred Bones, an american label that releases very gloomy stuff.

C: Actually I'm into Arve Henriksen's world right now..

Whom or what inspired you to begin writing for this project (Dale Cooper Quartet)?

G: I think we were inspired at first by the Twin Peaks bizarre atmosphere and Bohren Und Der Club Of Gore, but that was almost 10 years ago.

Y: Yes, it was our first aim. But we are now less focused on this kind of music. That's why there are singers on the last 2 albums. We just wanted to play music together as we used to be connected but we played in our different projects. There is no direction but we sometimes wonder if our music fit in the DC4tet style or not. The regular Dark Jazz recipe sometimes change and we can write long moody and ambient stuff but also short noisy songs.

C: I think the landscapes, people or atmospheres are mainly more influent than any other artists. remembering the starting point, we referred yes to Twin Peaks, or Mulholland Drive diving introduction but the recordings were only made late at night or early morning, cold coffee and cigarettes ambiance… but it was as important as the Lynch prysm.

Care to shed some info on your latest LP; theme, favorite track(s), etc?

G: This is a whole thing, each track can't be easily extracted from the entire LP, nor you can't really understand one track if you don't listen to the other tracks. the last track was finished on while we were mixing, i find it to be a great closing sequence.

Y: We are discussing  a lot about the track listing to make an original record. We decided to start with a 21 mms track as we thought that it was a perfect starting point for "Quatorze Pieces…".

C: A funny and hard record both, as we optioned various tracks first and it's funny to see where we arrived from the first ideas.. but the hardest thing is that it's a 3rd record, make the good choices without being inspired by the two first records, going ahead..

Will you be touring extensively for said release?

G: Don't know yet but I'd like to!

Y: We all have regular jobs and don't want to get bored with long tours. Meeting nice people and discovering new towns and countries is 50% of a good gig.

C: It could be easy for us to tour more, as we play 2 or 3 gigs a year;-) Then if we happen to play 5 gigs a year, we'll say it was a tour de force tour!

If you could pick any 3 artists to remix your work whom would you choose?

G: Very difficult question, why remix? I would prefer collaborations:-)

Y: Maybe electronic artists that are not making the same music as ours; Fourtet, Fuck Buttons, Pan American.

C: A very bad mainstream Jazz band.. or someone like David Sylvian as opposite.. but collaborations yeah is best..

Got any other projects we should know about?

G: My ambient work in progress: www.moregeometrico.net (I invite some musicians to make an album in one night, and publish it free the day after)

C: I released a first record under the name of Pan & Me last year, also released on Denovali, a second one is on its way..

What movie would work best on mute while listening to you music?

G: A road trip across Romania shot in black & white by the window of a bus.

Y: Night shots mainly I guess.

C: The movie you'll choose..

You can only keep/listen to ONE album for the rest of your life ..which album would it be?

G: Brian Eno's 'Ambient 4: On Land'

Y: 'Hex' by Bark Psychosis.

C: 'Laughing Stock' by Talk Talk

Are you living your dream? 

G: it's like I'm having the most beautiful dream... and the most terrible nightmare, all at once.

Y: "Dreams Never End", New Order, 'Movement' 1981.

C: 'Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)', Eurythmics, 1983

Thanx DC&Co. and Isa!

Dale Cooper & Co. recently released THIS.. I strongly recommend you check that out;]

REVIEW: Dale Cooper Quartet & The Dictaphones - Quatorze Pieces De Menace

8.25 out of 10

Find it here.

Dale Cooper & Co. wanted to prove something on this release. They wanted to show you they're more than just another "Dark Jazz" ensemble.

Make no mistake, the Dark factor is still highly present on 'Quatorze Pieces De Menace'. Yes, there are those Jazz elements as well.. The major difference between this release and previous efforts is a stronger focus on menacing drones and white noises (reminiscent of The Caretaker, L. Pierre, and The Haxan Cloak) as well as a smaller focus on loud guitar rock (of some sort). Dale Cooper & Co. shift the sound direction from "just" menacing drones into rotting buildups that portray audial decay in a different light. Once past the 21 minute intro track you are thrown ear first into smoothing vocals followed by a lingering synth and.. saxaphone (did I tell you I love the saxaphone?). The tone then shifts again into something louder and more attentive; the fuzzy side of guitars if you will, this may be Dale Cooper & Co. at their most aggressive. Catch your breath, the mood loosens up again..back to bleakness, then back again to something heavenly and possibly derranged. This is what I love about these guys, listening to their music is like watching/slightly celebrating the beginning of the Industrial age evolving into the great depression, in slow-motion. The visuals that come from this release are extremely intense under the proper settings. Am I saying this album is "dark & depressing", yeah..kind of, in a good way though of course;] I would say It's not quite cold enough for this release yet, but those weeks are just around the bend. No matter the season, much like everything Dale Cooper & Co. have had a hand in, this release is quite magical and mysterious. Seduction is only a pair of headphones + button click away.

Literal goosebumps when listening to this album at night with all the lights off. RECOMMENDED.

Standout Tracks: Brosme En Dos-Vert, Nourrain Quinqet, La Ventrée Rat De Cave, Il Bamboche Empereurs, Céladon Bafre, Lampyre Bonne Chère

Blurred Ghosts: An EIC Dark Jazz (Mini) Feature

Blurred Ghosts: An EIC Dark Jazz (Mini) Feature

Prepare to pull back the red curtain and enter the smoke hazed cabaret of Dark Jazz. It's a place where saxes spill their distorted notes with despair, where ambience is the driving force, where chanteuses grace the stage, and where the shadows of fifties nightlife still linger, waiting to seduce and fascinate.

The origins of our strange cabaret date back over fifty years. We can look to early figures like Mal Waldron – whose music hinted at melancholia and ambience – but Dark Jazz's founding architects are undeniably the musicians who brought their work out of the clubs and onto the movie screens. Two soundtracks in particular that come to mind are Duke Ellington's 'Anatomy of A Murder' (1959) and Miles Davis's Ascenseur 'Pour L'Échafaud' (1958). Ellington's accompaniment to Otto Preminger's courtroom crime drama may feature an orchestra bursting with color, but Ellington's wistful piano translates perfectly the film's tension and suspense. Davis's work with Louis Malle reflects a similar vision to that of Ellington, but teems with pure sorrow – a sorrow which critic Phil Johnson describes as "the model for sad-core music ever since. Hear it and weep."

Fifties American film scores, however much they may be heavily dipped in the scent of Blues, expose through sonic imagery the time's seamy underbelly. But as Jazz's connection to film fades, the curtain to our cabaret seems to have closed its doors. Not until the eighties do artists return to the genre's dark dimensions. As Post-Punk saxophonists like Tuxedomoon's Steven Brown's and Clock DVA's Charlie Collins dip their songs in a tank of Industrial decay, more and more being to catch onto Jazz's somber potential. No artist resurrected Dark Jazz more than David Lynch's musical bedfellow, Angelo Badalamenti. From the his first soundtrack on 'Blue Velvet' (1986), Badalamenti flawlessly inhabits the Lynchian world with low-register strings, seductive female vocals, and Jazz signatures that sound as if they're being pulled through a black hole. The composer's work for the cult phenomenon, 'Twin Peaks' (1990), however, reigns as Dark Jazz's defining album to this day. For the audience who turned in to witness the mystery unfolding before their eyes, the haunting music stretching in the background was an unforgettable illustration of Twin Peak's weird, shocking world.

Never again could the cabaret doors close once Badalamenti slammed them wide open. It's two decades later, and dozens of artists are still at work tackling the genre. Bohren & Der Club of Gore now make a “slow, easy listening version of Black Sabbath ” with bass-driven songs that throw you into an hypnotic trek through Germany's alleyways. The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble (TKDE) play with an unholy mixture of slow Jazz ballads, sensual vocals, and hazy beats to paint a soundtrack for imaginary films. Somewhere Off Jazz Street's sole member Buz Hendricks creates Jazz awash in a processed, mechanical aura by virtual instruments driven through a MIDI-keyboard. Dale Cooper Quartet & the Dictaphones even mixes electronics (samples, cuts, whitewashed drones) and acoustics (guitars, saxophones, trumpets, oboes, clarinets) to build a fragile card castle of flawless orchestration where every note evokes a fierce strangeness few artists can match. There's no doubt we are far from seeing the end of Dark Jazz.

Below is a selected discography of Dark Jazz-related albums. Three tips before listening: make sure it's past midnight, have your headphones ready, and close your eyes. Get ready for a journey you will never forget.

Selected Discography:
Miles Davis – Ascenseur Pour L'Échafaud (1958)
Duke Ellington – Anatomy of A Murder (1959)
Angelo Badalamenti – Blue Velvet (1986), Twin Peaks (1990)
Bohren & Der Club of Gore – Gore Motel (1994), Dolores (2008), Sunset Mission (2000)
The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble – The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble (2006), Live: I Forsee The Dark Ahead, If I Stay (2011)
The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation – Succubus (2009)
Dale Cooper Quartet & The Dictaphones – Parole De Navarre (2007), Metamanoir (2011)
Somewhere Off Jazz Street – Stories From Midnight (2008)
Heroin And Your Veins – Nausea (2009)