Ocoeur – Queen City Sounds and Art

Ocoeur’s Ambient Soundscape “Second Chance” is the Sound of a World Disconnected From the Rapacious Demands of Economic Thinking

The harmonic slow swell that subtly ushers in Ocoeur’s “Second Chance” is like the beginning of the day in its progression—a background shift in energy and emotional resonance that evolves seemingly suddenly into a sunlit sky. It’s a sustained harmonic layering that works together as tones make themselves known with an impressionistic coalescence of elements with single notes signing out and echoing with sonic trails like a fading afterimage. Musically it also has a feeling like being able to walk or drive through the streets in the days leading up to Christmas in the USA when people, businesses and the city leave their lighting decorations on throughout the night. There is bright tranquility to that feeling that even if the world is in peril at all times you can take in a moment or a dozen to take in something quaint and beautiful and simple that doesn’t have an immediate commercial utility. It’s in that moment that maybe you can entertain the idea that our conflicted species might have another chance if we can not obey our role in a global system of commodifying capitalism baked into every interaction, increasingly demanding our time and our energy in lives in which any idle moment is treated as theft from the economy. This song sounds like that mindset is irrelevant in the grand scheme of actually living. Listen to “Second Chance” on Spotify and follow Ocoeur at the links below.

ocoeur-music.com

Ocoeur on Facebook

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Memory Scale’s Enveloping and Spacious “Moment of Inertia” is Like a Train Journey Through a Fog Shrouded Morning

Early into the orchestration of sonic vectors and percussive tonality of Memory Scale’s “Moment of Inertia” there is an almost palpable sense of the title as the pace of the composition lifts off. He repeating sounds like a great wheel resonating in the background almost serves as a timer of the energy generated in the movement of the song though its chill atmospheres and spaciousness sound like a chamber of sustained and floating tones interacting with one another in hazy, distant luminosity. There’s a sense of being in a train looking out into a foggy day and making out the muted shapes of landscape as you move forward into a distant destination. The song works both as an aurally tactile experience of drifting and streaming textures but also as one of soothing yet evocative harmonic presences. Listen to “Moment of Inertia” on Spotify and follow French composer Memory Scale at the links below. The single comes from the Fauna compilation curated by Franck Zaragoza (aka Ocoeur) released December 10, 2024, International Animal Rights Day with proceeds donated to French animal rights non-profit L214.

Memory Scale on Twitter

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Memory Scale on Bandcamp

Ocoeur’s “Glow” is the Ambient Sound of Our Connected Society Comfortably Corroding in Mutually Assured Isolation

Ocoeur_Glow1_sm — Ocoeur, photo courtesy the artist

“Glow” by Bordeaux, France-based electronic music composer Ocoeur (Franck Zaragoza) evokes the sense of self-imposed isolation through technology that most people living in the modern world experience every day through increasingly using mobile devices channeled through platforms of interaction that run the gamut of human life from everyday communication with friends, relatives, one’s job to dating, ordering food, hailing transportation, watching entertainment, getting news and even remotely operating aspects of your house should you be connected that way. The irony of calling this state of things being “connected” is something that Ocoeur challenges on his new album Everything (out on Feb 28th on 180-gram ultra clear vinyl and digipak compact disc). “Glow” in particular has hazy synth sounds and sense of being shrouded in your own head and shielded from an outside world. It has a comfortably insular feel with soothing drones but underlying is a sense of darkness and unrest, of discomfort that is difficult to define but which creeps up on you while easing those sensations of dissatisfaction with a sort of soporific/hypnotic energy. Combining what seem like opposite purposes in crafting the track Ocoeur has manifested in sound the ambient mood, the background radiation if you will, of modern society and what we have come to accept because we feel it’s comfortable and we figure the benefits outweigh the costs even as it, in its current form, might be eroding us from the inside on an individual and collective level by catering to stasis rather than encouraging curiosity and growth beyond what you already know. Listen to “Glow” on Soundcloud and follow Ocoeur at the links provided.