Transmission – Cosmos (Album – Wave Records)
Genre/Influences: Electro-Pop, Minimal-Electro, Experimental.
Format: Digital, CD.
Background/Info: “Cosmos” is the debut album of the French solo-project Transmission, which is driven by Sandrine Deville. The band name is clearly inspired by Joy Division. “Cosmos” features nine songs, which were released by the end of 2020.
Content: Sound-wise Transmission has nothing in common with Joy Division. It’s not easy defining the work of this female artist, but she’s mixing Minimal-Electro compositions and Electro/Wave-Pop together with violin melodies. The cadence is rather slow although danceable, sometimes broken and also experimenting with Trip-Pop and D’n’B influences. The vocals are half spoken half sung reflecting some icy sensuality. Most songs are sung in French, but you’ll also notice English-, Spanish- and even German sung tracks. Mixing refined and bombastic passages, Transmission creates a very unique sound universe.
+ + + : Transmission creates a very own sound, which took me by surprise. It’s a creative process resulting in original and alluring songs. The violin tunes inject something totally unexpected, but still magic, accentuating the darkness and melancholia of the work. This is an artist with an own sound DNA and the debut album is a fully accomplished piece of music. There’s no single song to throw away, every song has something to offer. I have a preference for the extra dark and Industrial-minded tracks like “De Stijl”, but also “Désuétude”, “Cosmos” or the haunting “Cloud 9” with an extra EBM touch on top. The somewhat whispering way of singing creates a sensual-, but still ghost-like sphere.
– – – : The sound formula is somewhat similar the entire album long, but when you’re discovering such a creative process you can only, but recognize the talent of this artist.
Conclusion: If most releases –whatever their style, are often sounding pretty similar, Transmission is the perfect antithesis; a true artistic and original composition, but also revealing accomplished and great songs. Respect!
Best songs: “De Stijl”, “Désuétude”, “Cosmos”, “Cloud 9”, “Echouées”, “Illusion”.
Rate: (9).
Artist: www.soundoftransmission.com / www.facebook.com/soundoftransmission
Label: www.waverecordsmusic.com / www.facebook.com/waverecords Read the news on ‘Cosmos’.
About Transmission
Transmission is the solo project of Sandrine Deville, a concept-art designer based in Biarritz, France, who works under the name Bluefactoriz. She learned violin at the Ferney-Voltaire conservatory, played bass in the band Hopupu and, between 2011 and 2016, in the cold-wave duo Rive Droite Rive Gauche. For her 2018 design degree in Toulouse she built a 3D-printed electro-acoustic violin named “Transmission”, its shape taken from the pulsar lines on the sleeve of Joy Division’s “Unknown Pleasures”; the instrument is documented in Pedro Peñas y Robles’ book “Joy Division, Paroles De Fans” (Camion Blanc).
“Cosmos” was released by the Brazilian label Wave Records on 12 October 2020 as a download and as a CD limited to 200 copies in a six-panel ecopack; Discogs notes that the CD adds two hidden remixes by Hans Zeh and Marcelo Gallo. The nine tracks are “Cosmos”, “Désuétude”, “Echouées”, “De Stijl”, “Suite Nuptiale”, “Illusion”, “Pulsars”, “Love Is Dirty” and “Cloud 9”. Jean-Philippe Torres, also known as Drone of Dark Line Spectrum, handled synths, additional drum machines, sound design, arrangement, mixing and mastering at Drone Studio. Videos were issued for “Cosmos”, built from footage of the 1920 film “The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari”, “De Stijl”, “Suite Nuptiale” and, in 2025, “Cloud 9”.
Deville discussed the project in the ‘Click Interview’ with Transmission: ‘I Think That There Will Be More And More Female Electronic Underground Artists’ published on Side-Line in August 2021. “Cosmos” is the project’s debut album.
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