Paul Szego
The simultaneous simplicity and yet richness of that first track…. Blows my mind; sends my heart to the stratosphere.
Favorite track: Fleeting Future.
teachlove
The most enriching musical experience for me in a long time. The album is a Hi-Fi gem, being full of new sounds, woven in many layers of actually very uplifting music.
Favorite track: Divine Moments of Truth.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Purchasable with gift card
Download available in 24-bit/44.1kHz.
£10GBP or more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
** USA orders shipping in 2 weeks
Cogito featured in the Pluribus series on Apple TV, from the director of Breaking Bad
Long sold out and now repressed (300 copies only worldwide), printed in heavy-weight reverse board sleeve, and shipping in outer PVC protective sleeve.
Featuring cover artwork by Dutch visual artist Sigrid Calon. Art direction and design by Adam Heron
Includes unlimited streaming of Fleeting Future
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Limited edition clear vinyl (300 copies only worldwide), printed in heavy-weight reverse board sleeve, Exclusive Obi / Banderole strip and shipping in outer PVC protective sleeve.
Featuring cover artwork by Dutch visual artist Sigrid Calon. Art direction and design by Adam Heron
Includes unlimited streaming of Fleeting Future
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Download available in 24-bit/44.1kHz.
Sold Out
Limited Edition Black Vinyl w/ Obi Banderole (300 copies only / 150 on bandcamp)
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Limited edition black vinyl (300 copies only worldwide / 150 copies only on bandcamp), printed in heavy-weight reverse board sleeve, Exclusive Obi / Banderole strip and shipping in outer PVC protective sleeve.
Featuring cover artwork by Dutch visual artist Sigrid Calon. Art direction and design by Adam Heron
Includes unlimited streaming of Fleeting Future
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Download available in 24-bit/44.1kHz.
Sold Out
Test Pressing - Hand-stamped and numbered
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
➝ Limited edition, Hand-stamped and hand numbered
➝ 350 g/m² Archival outer sleeve
➝ Archival Jet Black ink, non-toxic
➝ Vinyl comes in protective poly-lined bag
↳ Image 2 - is an example completed edition. Each sleeve varies in stamp impression - making each copy unique and collectable, that’s the beauty! These editions should be considered as official test pressings, which are subject to clicks, pops and surface noise. Some copies are pressed on Bio Black vinyl
Once sold out - they will not be remade
Includes unlimited streaming of Fleeting Future
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
"Minimalism meets rave pentatonics"
★★★★ – The Guardian - Experimental Contemporary Album of the Month
"A fiercely focused electro-acoustic masterclass, full of life-affirming zeal." ★★★★ – MOJO
"Akusmi crafts an often-jubilant, forward-thinking sound from a vocabulary of past futures" – The Quietus
"Delightful pointillist songs from this London artist where sound appears in short tonal bursts to create musical constellations." – New and Notable, Bandcamp
Akusmi is the new project moniker of French-born, London based composer, multi-instrumentalist and producer Pascal Bideau, who signs to the new Tonal Union imprint for the release of his album ‘Fleeting Future.’ With its hallucinatory, genre-defying blend of minimalism, cosmic jazz and Fourth World influences, and in its quest for optimism in the face of unknown and limitless possibility. ‘Fleeting Future’ stands apart as an inventive and inspirational debut.
The creation of the album’s richly colourful and multi-layered sound world was originally inspired by Bideau’s journey to Indonesia, where he immersed himself in traditional Gamelan and gong music. Many of the themes, motifs and melodies on ‘Fleeting Future’ seed from the ‘Slendro’ scale, one of the essential tuning systems used in Gamelan. However it is not musical scales, but scales as in the size or extent of things that most fascinates Bideau, specifically he explains; “the compelling way things dramatically change when you shift from any given scale to another.”
The album connects directly to nature and the wider world in its evocation of perceptive shifts and transitions from microscopic to macro scale, as evidenced by the opening title track ‘Fleeting Future’, on which a simple dotted saxophone line morphs and billows into synths, brass and strings, indicating the musical voyage that lies ahead. Like the start of a journey or adventure it is full of anticipation, its arborescent growth conveying the optimism of the unknown and of limitless possibility. The album centrepiece ‘Neo Tokyo’ is a vibrating, ebullient mass of colliding elements which feels like zooming in to the electron level, as it teeters on the edge of chaos. The title is a reference to Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira, a dizzying work of art set in a sprawling futuristic metropolis.
‘Yurikamome’, meanwhile, is an imaginary soundtrack inspired by Bideau’s yearning to visit Japan which he fuels by watching Youtube videos of drives and rides through Japanese landscapes and cities. “It’s amazing” he adds, “that we have the ability to access almost anywhere in the world and see what it’s like, that people document it and upload it. It’s never going to be any replacement for the real thing, but with places that really touch you, it works.” The track is named after a Japanese monorail train line which rides from Shinbashi to Toyosu, a last journey that feels like a new beginning.
‘Fleeting Future’ was composed and recorded by Bideau between 2017 and 2019 in his North London studio and features additional contributions recorded in Berlin by Florian Juncker (trombone), Ruth Velten (saxophone) and regular collaborator Daniel Brandt of Brandt Brauer Frick (drums / electronic percussion). Having been living through uncertain times, one thing that keeps spiralling into the unknown is the future, about which Bideau leaves us with a final thought:
“The future is fascinating: It is constantly readjusting to new events. I feel we left a linear approach to the future to enter an arborescent one where all the data and information we have about what could happen is exponentially ever-growing. Following a branch might allow you to glimpse into what it may become, but the evolution of the whole picture might very well render the prediction totally obsolete, and even meaningless. In that sense, there is not one future but innumerable ones all cancelling each other. That’s what makes it fleeting.”
‘Fleeting Future’ will be the first release on the new London/Berlin based Tonal Union imprint, founded by Art director and curator Adam Heron.
Akusmi — ‘Fleeting Future’ is released on Tonal Union Records on June 24th
credits
released July 15, 2022
All tracks composed and produced by Akusmi
Recorded by Pascal Bideau in Bonang Studio in London and Jan Brauer at The Gym Studios in Berlin
Mixed by Jimmy Robertson in London
Mastered by Zino Mikorey in Berlin
Vinyl cut by Andreas Kauffelt at Schnittstelle Mastering in Berlin
supported by 156 fans who also own “Fleeting Future”
this album is the justification for the hundreds of hours this year alone i have put into listening to albums. this record has so much versatility, it could be very legitimately used as background noise, or it could be a full-blown story that takes you down many winding paths of tension and emotion. the only difference between these two scenarios is whatever you wanted this album to be. if you havent already, please let this be the reason that you check this album out :3 kaycs
supported by 94 fans who also own “Fleeting Future”
This record has such a somatically calming effect on me... it pulls me into a space inhabited by sounds with an aliveness to them. I can touch and feel and laugh with these sounds as they cavort about my brain. Thank you Nala Sinephro. sarikat
supported by 91 fans who also own “Fleeting Future”
Yeah we know you knew you could play that lick on repeat Jeff - guess that's why it's called The Knew Untitled. Anyway, this album is beautiful. Theincredibleafrobeatboy
supported by 87 fans who also own “Fleeting Future”
Space 1.8 came on as I was driving at night through the Iowa countryside and everything turned magical. This record has the same effect, it’s like putting sunglasses on and looking at the sky. Beautiful. secretpizza
