Jean-Marc Lederman – Night Music For Seahorses And Manatees (Album – COP International)
Genre/Influences: Cinematic, Experimental.
Format: Digital, CD.
Background/Info: Belgian composer Jean-Marc Lederman has never been as prolific and inspired as during the Covid 19-pandemic. His newest work is a new conceptual album driven by his fascination for aquatic life resulting in this ‘homage’ to seahorses and manatees.
Content: Jean-Marc Lederman likes to work with themes which are totally different from each other. But this album deals however again with a pure Cinematic writing. This could be the Soundtrack for a documentary. The orchestral arrangements, strings effects and acoustic sounds are totally devoted to the Cinematic style. But songs also feature slow rhythms and other more exotic cadences. Guest singer Emileigh Rohn has been featured on 2 songs but especially the cover versions of “Song To Siren” is a noticeable one.
+ + + : The concept is maybe less fun than we might expect although titles of songs are sometimes pretty weird. Jean-Marc Lederman feels comfortable composing Cinematic music and this album brings all the different elements together. I like his orchestral arrangements creating this cool bombastic effect. The rhythms are bringing the work more accessible while holding onto the Soundtrack feeling. This is a diverse- and elaborated work and the perfect production to dream about abyssal depths and aquatic creatures.
– – – : I noticed a few songs with an abrupt end. The main difficulty for this production remains its Experimental style.
Conclusion: This new work by Jean-Marc Lederman confirms his great composing skills for Cinematic music. The dreamy strength of the work reminds me of the universe if Jacques Tati.
Best songs: “Where Is Dory?”, “Johnny Deep”, “(Music Industry) Sharks: We’re Gonna Need Bigger Slippers!”
Rate: 7½.
Artist: www.jmlederman.com / www.facebook.com/Music-composer-Jean-Marc-Lederman-1585277635023000
Label: www.facebook.com/copint Read the news on ‘Night Music For Seahorses And Manatees’.
“Night Music For Seahorses And Manatees” was released on 31 March 2022 through COP International, digitally and on CD in a four-sided eco-package. The mostly instrumental album runs about 38 minutes. Lederman composed, played, arranged, produced and mixed every track. Emileigh Rohn of Chiasm sings on the cover of “Song To The Siren”, written by Tim Buckley with lyrics by Larry Beckett, and provides the voice on “Where Is Dory?”. Marine biologist Geoff Avern wrote the foreword.
Lederman set out what the listener is meant to encounter: “You’ll literally meet seahorses, manatees, sharks, mantas, an old shipwreck, see the sad state the coral reefs are in (and that’s our fault), you’ll also be looking for Dory and will finally arrive at the bottom of the sea and re-discover…SURPRISE !”
The album followed “The Raven”, issued under the Jean-Marc Lederman Experience name in January 2022.
Listen to “Night Music For Seahorses And Manatees”:
About Jean-Marc Lederman
Jean-Marc Lederman is a Belgian composer and electronic musician who has worked in the field since the early 1980s. He was a member of The Weathermen and has recorded with Fad Gadget, a period he described in the Side-Line feature Working with Fad Gadget and Daniel Miller was an exciting treat. Side-Line also reviewed The Weathermen’s Long Lost Live Instrumental Backing Tapes + Live CD Concert in 2019.
He works in clearly separated conceptual projects. Side-Line reviewed “The Space Between Worlds” in 2017, the Lederman / De Meyer collaborations “A Tribe Of My Own” and “Eleven Grinding Songs” in 2018, “13 Ghost Stories” and “Ode A La Pluie” in 2019, “Letters To Gods [And Fallen Angels]” in 2020, and “The Helpless Voyage Of The Titanic”, “Music for Dinosaurs” and “The Mysterious Manuscript Of Gabriel Garcia Marquez” in 2021.
The work with Emileigh Rohn continued as the Rohn-Lederman duo, whose album “Rage” appeared on COP International in 2022. Lederman went on to release “Soul Music For Zombies” in 2023, “Sci-Fi Revisited” in 2024 and “Electronic Slipper Music” in 2025.
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