I N S T I T U T R I C E

The music of I N S T I T U T R I C E reminds us at times of the horizontal gongs called kong vong thom of the Cambodian orchestra, or the dazzling sounds of an ensemble of kolintang gongs from Mindanao, in the southern Philippines. We are here in the floating world of an imaginary folklore whose sonorities evoke these traditional Asian musics, but strangely propelled by a powerful drive, a setting to the cord and disturbed by discrete electronic sounds. The sound treatments used are never in contradiction with the sound of the percussions, are never incongruous but rather a natural extension which increases or amplifies the percussions. One could say that, in terms of sound treatment, I N S T I T U T R I C E always works “in the direction of the wood”.

At first listening, the album ‘Cohortes’ seems massive and monolithic, but it contains a few milestones and markers to guide the listening. The track entitled ‘Werner’, at almost 11 mn 30 s, is the pièce de résistance of Cohortes. A firework display of gongs and cymbals against a mystical drone background, it is a monumental and very engaging track. The fifth track, entitled ‘Jacques’, exploits slightly different nuances than the previous one, with bowed percussions, Chinese opera cymbals, a synthesizer more present than on other tracks.

It is a festive and joyful moment.