Franck Vigroux – Ballades Sur Le Lac Gelé (Album – Raster)
Genre/Influences: Industrial, Experimental, IDM.
Format: Digital, CD, Vinyl.
Background/Info: French artist Franck Vigroux remains a prolific musician. He has already released an impressive discography and has worked with multiple labels. “Ballades Sur Le Lac Gelé” was released in 2020 and is his first production released by the great label Raster.
Content: Franck Vigroux is mixing different styles together, which is rather usual for this artist. But the main difference with previous productions is that he may have found the perfect balance between Industrial-, Ambient-, Electro- and IDM. It’s a sophisticated and minimal-like production, mainly achieved with a kind of tearing sound treatment. It’s a heavy Industrial sound manipulation, which sounds a bit like the common thread of the work. I also noticed a few more accessible tracks; kind of danceable cuts driven by slow Industrial rhythm patterns.
+ + + : Franck Vigroux has already released an impressive number of productions, becoming a renowned and respected artist. But this album sounds to me like his magnum opus; the album people will keep in mind and, which might be seen as a sonic legacy for the further Industrial generation. It’s an intelligent writing where the musician reached the ultimate harmony between all his influences. It remains Industrial, but also mixed with great IDM treatments and supported with dark atmospheres. More than ever before he excels on this work as a true sound architect. There’s no single cut to throw away while some tracks like “Rome”, “Two” and “Beyond The Black Hole” are masterpieces. The approach remains exactly the same, but these cuts –and especially “Beyond The Black Hole”, are accessible for a wider audience. I also enjoyed this scratching, tearing sound manipulation, which runs through the entire work.
– – – : Franck Vigroux is not an artist who’s repeating himself and when you’ve heard such as masterpiece as “Ballades Sur Le Lac Gelé” you simply regret he’s not repeating himself…
Conclusion: This album is a true masterpiece revealing a modern approach of Industrial music.
Best songs: “Rome”, “Two”, “Beyond The Black Hole”, “Styx”, “Drive”.
Rate: (9).
Artist: www.franckvigroux.com / www.facebook.com/vigrouxfranck
Label: www.raster-media.net / www.facebook.com/raster.artistic.platform
About Franck Vigroux
Franck Vigroux is a French multi-instrumentalist built around guitar and electronics, active since the early 2000s. His discography on Discogs runs from “Les 13 Cicatrices” (2002) through collaborative and solo work such as “Looking For Lilas” (2004) and “Hums 2 Terre” (2007).
Side-Line spoke with the musician in a 2019 Click Interview about the balance between culture and economy in his work. “Ballades Sur Le Lac Gelé”, released in 2020, was his first production for the Raster label.
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