ASHBURN COUNTY est un projet franco-américain qui a vu le jour en Louisiane en 2011. Sortis de l'esprit de Leroy Delbert Quebedeaux, ces chansons et paysages sonores racontent les histoires des habitants de ce comté imaginaire situé dans les régions rurales reculées du Sud profond. Inspirée par la littérature et le cinéma, cette musique s'apparente à la progéniture des bandes sonores d'horreur des séries B et de la prose incandescente de William Faulkner, mêlant l’électronique analogique et les boîtes à rythme bon marché aux instruments traditionnels et orchestraux, comme une rencontre entre les expérimentations d'Ennio Morricone, l'usage mystique de samples façon Coil, les bandes sonores de films de maisons hantées à la manière d'Amityville de Lalo Schifrin et le folklore cajun.
LULLABIES & NIGHTMARES est le quatrième album du projet. Comme le titre l'indique, chaque chanson s’apparente à une comptine qui aurait mal tourné. Étrange et effrayante, la musique développe une forte atmosphère visuelle qui rappelle Carnival of Souls, le film culte des années 60. Empreint d'une mélancolie hypnotique et de présences fantomatiques, le disque est aussi le résultat selon Quebedeaux d'avoir relu Edgar Allan Poe, d'avoir bu trop d'alcool, d'avoir été confronté à une solitude dévastatrice et d'avoir tenté d'imaginer de vastes paysages pour échapper à la folie. Derrière les voix glaciales, les notes d'accordéon terrifiantes et les claviers langoureux, tout un univers ouvre ses portes, quelque part entre les vivants et les morts, entre les rêves et la réalité, entre le souvenir et l'absence.
ASHBURN COUNTY is a French-American project that emerged in Louisiana in 2011. Coming out of the mind of Leroy Delbert Quebedeaux, these songs and soundscapes have been telling the stories of the inhabitants of this imaginary county set in the remote rural parts of the Deep South. Inspired by literature and cinema, this music is like the offspring of B-movies horror soundtracks and the incandescent prose of William Faulkner, mixing analog electronics and cheap rhythm boxes with traditional and orchestral instruments. Some have said that it sounds like a surreal meeting between Ennio Morricone’s experiments, Coil’s mystical use of samples, haunted houses film soundtracks in the way of Lalo Schifrin’s Amityville and cajun folklore.
LULLABIES AND NIGHTMARES is the fourth release of the project. As the title suggests, each song is like a nursery rhyme that would have gone wrong. Eerie and creepy, the music develops a strong visual atmosphere reminiscent of Carnival of Souls, the cult movie from the sixties. Full of hypnotic melancholy and ghost-like presences, the record was also the result according to Quebedeaux of having re-read Edgar Allan Poe, having been drinking too much alcohol, being confronted to a devastating solitude and trying to imagine broad landscapes in order to escape madness. Behind the icy cold vocals, terrifying accordion notes and languid keyboards, a whole universe opens its doors, somewhere between the living and the dead, between dreams and reality, between memory and absence.
credits
released September 22, 2022
For this album, the inhabitants of Ashburn County were
Odette Mayeaux : accordion, flutes, harmonica
Leroy Delbert Quebedeaux : chainsaw, waterphone, rhythm boxes, synthesizers, samples, field recordings, air conditioner, bass guitar, metal percussion, electric fan, drones, vocals, washing machine, organ, violin, editing
Sadie Bee Palace : slide guitar, synthesizers, virtual strings, rhythm boxes, metal sounds, mellotron, samples, Prophet VS, field recordings, SEM, piano, noises
and
Liv Bouaziz : child's voice (4)
Nils Bouaziz : field recordings (4), voice (1)
Garett Heber : drums (6)
Romain Mascagni : drones and sine waves (4, 9)
Helena Patricio : vocals (8)
Rogatien Quenneville : cello (2)
Grady Roper : vocals (3)
Marc Sarrazy : piano (2, 9), gongs and synthesizer (3)
Camila Verdow : violin (3)
Recorded between 2019 and 2021
Mixed by Sadie Bee Palace
Mastered by George Palace
Photos by Leroy Delbert Quebedeaux
For inspiration, we would like to thank Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinson, Robert Bresson, Matt Cimber and Peter de Rome.
La République des Granges / Nuit et brouillard, 2022
A collection of tracks from the singer and multi-disciplinary artist's 111 collaboration series, featuring KMRU, Laraaji, and others. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 25, 2024
