Soutien Gorge combine the playfulness and innocence of Plone, with the carefully arranged moods of ISAN, and vocal samples that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Wevie Stonder album.
Elemental ambience, clever melodies, and whimsy
Soutien Gorge make a much welcome return to release their latest album Tarskapcsolatodban on Touched Music. I’m not as familiar with their back-catalog as I would like to be but intend to remedy that! The double CD compilation Meseerdö on Touched Music is a great place to do that. Soutien Gorge are two guys from Hungary (András Hargitai and Róbert Potys) who make interesting experimental electro-acoustic music. Their first release was around 2002, making this release their 20th anniversary release.
Tarskapcsolatodban makes me think fondly of a lot artists on labels like City Centre Offices, Morr Music, and some outliers on Warp Records—musically coming in somewhere between, ISAN, B. Fleischmann, and Plone. The melodies have a simple, often nursery rhyme-like appeal. Arrangements range from acoustic and electronic instruments, with some field recording elements, and speech sampling that, to me, is a foreign language and difficult to understand. There’s good use of guitars creating additional layers and at times reminiscent of duo505; a B. Fleischmann and Herbert Weixelbaum side project. The field recordings and reserved electronics reminds me of the 2018 Wanderwelle’s album Gathering Of The Ancient Spirits on Silent Season Canada.
Combing the playfulness and innocence of Plone ::
Compositions are often sparse and leave space for the mind to play along with the sounds presented, rather than be bombasted by walls of sound. Whilst not quite as epic (yet for me) as the album Indicator by Oblong—a strong favorite and lesser-known album—there are some comparisons available, this album will be added to my late night summer outdoor chill-out music playlist.
Soutien Gorge combine the playfulness and innocence of Plone, with the carefully arranged moods of ISAN, and vocal samples that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Wevie Stonder album—yes that is Wevie Stonder, and not Stevie Wonder which the track “Rather Lazy” demonstrates perfectly.
Tarskapcsolatodban is an excellent addition to the Touched Music label and brings music from far away Hungary closer to an audience here in Ireland, Great Britain, and abroad. Being released on green vinyl, CD, as well as digital, I highly recommend making time and space to add this to ones menu over the coming weeks. Packed with elemental ambience, clever melodies, and whimsy.
Tarskapcsolatodban is available on Touched Music. [Bandcamp]
