"Between steeples and dogs, between sky and ground, ropes are stretched in the middle of the still landscape. Strings stretched in a giant space. When the outlines of the man who maintains the aforementioned strings appear. Who polishes them, paints them, mounts them and scrapes them, descends them with his tools, sometimes on the ground and sometimes higher. His eyes are tight and hardworking, but a great sweetness comes out of their icy blue. And suddenly he abandons us as he came; he disappears, leaves the image hobbling. An unknown sadness invades us then, irrational compared to the so recent meeting. One glimpses new dramas, mystical sorrows, mice transiting from cold. Until we understand that he has just made a big turn, that he is behind our backs and that he is stretching the canvas under our eyes, whispering long stories in our ears. Then the heat rises through the belly to the heart, and you feel the wind in the strings."
For 20 years, Anthony Béard has been abusing his electric guitar and composing in emblematic French math rock and Avant garde bands. Diatrib(a) (which will become Ni in 2009 after a line up reorganization), and PinioL: a monstrous septet gathering on stage the quartet Ni and the trio from Lyon of the indescribable PoiL. We find him lately at the initiative of projects of collective improvisations recordings as Djihâd, produced by the label Dur et Doux.
In 2019, shortly after the release of Pantophobia (fourth album of Ni), he focuses on the realization of a solo project. Abandoning amplified music for the classical guitar, the record includes four pieces with enigmatic titles composed on the instrument itself. At the same time, he devoted himself to writing a collection of surrealist poetry and it is from this back and forth between writing and music that he got the idea for the title of the album, Les contes de nulle part. They tell us stories lost between worlds, while emotion springs from the strings. Influenced by many composers of post-romantic or contemporary music like Erik Satie, Debussy, Leo Brouwer, Roland Dyens or even more pop artists like Robbie Basho. The tales of nowhere are as mysterious and colorful to our ears as a surrealist painting would be to our eyes.
credits
released June 4, 2021
Performed and composed by Anthony Béard
Recorded by Benoit Lecomte
supported by 18 fans who also own “Les contes de nulle part”
all of it good: the whimsy, the drama, the wild, the cosmic; deftly dancing the line between order and chaos, between the sublime and the vile, between the fathomable and the ineffable. puts the listener in a liminal limbo you don't get to be in (and still enjoy!) often. Tim Patterson
supported by 15 fans who also own “Les contes de nulle part”
Wow it's been a loooong time since I've been this excited about a prog album. PoiL and Ni are great bands in their own rights, but this project is so much more than the sum of its parts. I've not heard anything else quite like it, it's never boring. If I didn't know better I'd think these dudes are all actual wizards, especially with that band photo. 11/10 strongly recommended. sky · ghost
Introspective, homespun folk tunes from John Donne that feel informed by the sugary bleakness of '80s and '90s indie pop. Bandcamp New & Notable Aug 1, 2023
The freak-folk collective's debut is full of rich, haunted vocals and experimental melodies derived from more traditional idioms Bandcamp Album of the Day Nov 9, 2021
supported by 14 fans who also own “Les contes de nulle part”
unique, frenetic, provocative, surprising, amazing how they keep the listener on their toes while providing just enough structure to keep them grounded Tim Patterson