VICTIME / Corridor member TDA has released his debut LP ‘Ascète’. Under the moniker TDA, Samuel Gougoux utilizes drums, various triggers and effects and affected vocals to create a menacing and propulsive form of post-punk that lurches towards a full-stop like a fist into a brick wall. Fans of murky minimal wave to Liars experiments with percussion will find a lot to love here. You can stream the album via Bandcamp below.
More about ‘Ascète’
The first glimpse of the album came to TDA while he was on tour with Corridor, as he was contemplating the passing landscapes through the van’s window during long road trips. Back from tour, he then travels to his hometown in Bas-St-Laurent in Quebec, where he undertakes audio and visual documentation of these familiar yet estranged settings as he isolates himself in the nearby woodlands. Trying to shed normative fears, he decides to start exploring the forests at night, and questions this state of stupor, stemming from his childhood, fascinated by the architectural, but also percussive, aspects of trees.
This peculiar energy is transposed on the album with a sense of minimalistic urgency and syncopated, abrasive melodies, inspired by the branches and the light patterns emanating through the shadows. There is a sense of movement within sound and spaces that resonate on ‘Ascète’. The multi-instrumentist carries the fragile balance of each sound, transforming it to the point where the origin is like a blurry vision. Whether it is from analog samplings (wooden ropes, water drops) or electronic sound, TDA plays with sounds from his surroundings to build the atmosphère on each song. His musical endeavor will be completed with a limited-edition photo zine of pictures he took while recording the album, a compilation of images captured by Gougoux, aimed at documenting the artist’s whereabouts and doings during the composition stage, providing an intimate breach into his reclusion, one filled with darkness, light, timberland and its million branches.
Though drawing inspiration from the same artistic currents as the EP did, TDA’s full-length bears a different mood, more contemplative, and also quite gloomy. Through its music and lyrics, Gougoux deploys his many cogitations on intuition, personal mystique, and self-restriction, recounting and/or sharing stories one invents based on one’s context in life. The album will be available now via Michel Records.
‘Ascète’ track list
1. Maraudeur
2. En Choeur
3. Présence
4. Livrée
5. Sa voix est claire
6. Dalila
7. Au puits
8. Racle
9. Sans douleur
More about TDA
TDA is the solo project of multi-instrumentalist Samuel Gougoux, known and esteemed for his drumming amongst Montreal-based artists such as VICTIME, Corridor, N NAO and Jonathan Personne. Following solo performances where he uses drums, triggers, and treated vocals, TDA released a first self-titled EP in August of 2019. This quick-witted collection of explorations showcases traits of industrial, experimental and no wave music, as Gougoux meshes styles in a syncopated, abrasive, yet contained fashion.
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