I was born about 15k away from Lille, North of France / I've been involved in noise and experimental music since my teens / This very strong interest for raw, generally abstract materials and sounds led me to experience a few different ways to consider the sounds and indirectly to play and listen to music / It probably has influenced these recordings, which are the first I have done with this particular intention of keeping them raw afterwards / Just recording the sounds for what they are / Lille / I've been living here on and off for the last ten years with some travelling in-between / Somedays I meet ghosts from my past at every corner / The city keeps evolving all the time / Recording these places that I know by heart made me face them in a totally different way / I've tried to be spontaneous in my choices / It's the end of summer / It's getting colder and grey / September, I get this specific September feeling each year / It reminds me of my childhood / It's definitely the best moment for me to record my city //
About The Artist
Thomas Duthoit / I've always loved spending a big part of my time by myself, observing, contemplating, analysing, trying to understand my environment / I suppose it's not a coincidence if my Christmas and birthdays presents used to be things like binoculars, a microscope... and a tape recorder that I used to record things like radio noises, or Sunday lunches with my whole family / I had a fascination for my grandad's electric file, that produced very loud noises and sparkles when used against iron, I've also always loved fireworks / I discovered punk and grunge music while growing up, which slowly drove me to noise music / I actually started to record music properly when I was 15 or 16 years old / I've played noise and drone music in my room for years using a sampler, an electric guitar, guitar effects and some random stuff like drills, screwdrivers, nails... / I tried everything and created dozens of DIY prepared-guitars with a very stimulated imagination / I made my parents go nuts / I unfortunately lost pretty much all of these recordings / In the same time I discovered industrial music, techno, ambient... / I left my parent's home and started art studies. I really got into taking pictures and painting / I also kept playing music and started a couple of projects that I quickly gave up / At this point I can retrospectively tell I've actually spent ten years experimenting every aspect of my life / It started with art and music, relationships, jobs, my whole lifestyle basically /
I've traveled for a bit or rather I've left France and drifted all around Europe from a place to an other, meeting people, exploring places – mostly cities / I reckon it was mostly about getting to know myself a bit more / I got back to France and tried to get by, worked as a chef and struggled for a bit too / I do not paint anymore, although I've kept taking more and more photos over the last ten years / Last year I got to work in Morocco for a while and I naturally recorded moments and sounds that particularly caught my attention / My approach in recording is quite the same as in taking photos / It starts with a conscious walk around the place, getting lost waiting for the evidence of a picture or a recording / I like geometry, architecture, repetition, machines, urban land/soundscapes / A funny thing is that I've only recenlty heard of « field recording » yet as far back in time as I can remember, I've always recorded things that were happening around me.. ! /
« 60 minute cities » is my first release, and my first participation to any field recording project / It's definitely a mixture of the sum of all my experimentations from photos to drone music / You can see some of my photos on Instagram : bits.of.random. / I've also started a bandcamp page : https://bitsofrandom.bandcamp.com/
I wish you have as much pleasure audio-exploring as I had recording!
Thomas Duthoit
Nov. 2017
