Salon de la Guerre - LIbery

Salon de la Guerre

Liberty
self-released; 2016

3.8 out of 5

By Matt Jensen

Salon de la Guerre is an artist who not only put out an insane amount of music but changes it up. He mixed things up on Roses Don't Push The Car Home by introducing a lot of electronic elements. Prior to that, guitar was a prominent fixture on Clam Fake. He does however have a sound that I would argue could be heard on all of his albums. Some of it lies in the production but also the off-kilter patterns, transition and way of thinking of music in general.

One of his latest albums entitled Liberty is yet another stylistic deviation. That being said this is still fundamentally Salon de la Guerre. The main difference here is the songs are somewhat minimal and more importantly shorter. I felt as these songs were vignettes; short ideas that disappeared almost as quickly as they are introduced. This method of presentation isn’t entirely original as there have been plenty of experimental and free jazz records that went about an album the same way.

I don’t think there is any way to listen to this album other than just pressing play. Sure you might have some songs which stick out more than others but the experience revolves listening to it as whole.

Liberty is full of experimentation and diversity. “Liberty 1” is a manic piano piece. The very next piece “Liberty 2” explores  the very foundation of sounds - bubbling sub harmonics, clean guitar, synth. Songs like “Liberty 2” can shift on a moment's notice. The same thing can be said about “Liberty 3” which takes orchestral string and disregards them for fluttering synth. You don't know where these songs are headed and that’s part of the fun for someone who has a deeper appreciation for composition. 

He might revisit a piano piece or instead just chose to throw you off with disparate sounds like those on “Liberty 6.” “Liberty 11” actually has a groove you can latch onto for a couple of seconds and vocals make an appearance on “Mine Disaster.” The last two tracks are somewhat of an anomaly, especially “Incident at Juarez” which is a lo-fi rock song. 

​He puts it well on his Bandcamp page. Liberty is indeed a collage of sounds that de la Guerre grabs and assorts any damn way he pleases.

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