It is with great pleasure that I announce the release of the new album "nuages sur la nuit". The material contained on it bridges the extremes of all previous feu follet publications - there's an atmospheric beat-oriented piece, piano-loops, warm drone-building, cinematic soundscapes, dark ambient tracks and some of the most minimal music I've composed. A massive 2CD set, it is a collection of tracks written over a 1,5 year period originally intended for 2-3 different albums. It is thanks to the soft insistance and care of Tosom label boss Antonio that the record gained its definitive form. It is also him who suggested the use of a DVD Box with insert, which has proven just right. Listening back to the music now, it still makes complete sense, being divided into two distinct sonic worlds on the two discs.

Further thanks go out to Mirko, who did the absolutely stunning artwork and Kenji Siratori for his spoken word contribution on "Elemental" (which I unfortunately forgot to mention on the cover). At the moment, "nuages sur la nuit" feels like a perfect summary of the first three years of the project and as such warrant a time of reflection and reorientation.
Copies are available directly from me for 10 Euros plus postage.

The past few months have been great in terms of the project. The Feu Follet discography has grown by three releases in 2008, thanks to the support and dedication of various labels and personalities. Triple Bath published "fogbank", an extremely dark and ominous record created using samples from Norwegian Noise act Bjerga/Iversen. Gruenrekorder presented "paradis paysan", a delicate conceptual work, in a beautiful, autumnal digipack. And I've had the pleasure to work with Saxophonist Rent Romus on "grid" (as ministry of rites), an album which infuses a lively FreeJazz spirit into the Feu Follet sound. Even though my activities as a journalist have meant that I have been unable to spend any time promoting these releases, the reponse they have received from publications such as AllAboutJazz, Sonomu, Heathen Harvest and Connexion Bizarre has been wonderful. And for the same reason, copies of all the abovementioned records are still available from me directly.

In the meantime, "The Icicle Lectures Vol. 1" has sold out its first pressing for a while now and we're investigating plans of reprinting it, making it available as a digital download or presenting it in a different format. A complete follow-up to that album has been finished, changed around, re-recorded and finally shelved for the moment. Right now, it looks as though it may reappear in a completely new form sometime in the not too distant future.

More importantly, with the advent of "Nuages Sur La Nuit", a double CD on Tosom (see next blog entry), Feu Follet will most likely be taking a break from recording for a while. I have plans of setting up a new project, which will extend what I've been doing into new genres and add new ideas and structures. More soon.

Review by Chain DLK:
This is some nice minimalist piano / drone work. The website describes the disc this way: "The Icicle Lectures Vol. 1 sees Fischer combining the glacial drones of the predecessor with the warm radiating piano drops of Finnish discovery Miina Virtanen. The end result is an airy, hardly tangible composition of removal and recurrence. Like feathers falling down on an icy surface in slow motion." There are only two tracks here. Track 1, "Silence Thoughts II," is a short, pretty minimal piano piece. Rather enjoyable. The second track, "The Icicle Lectures Vol. 1," is much longer, weighing in at 34 minutes. This track is a bit more involved, building in complexity and depth. It consists mostly of slowly changing drones, with much less of the piano that figured so prominently in the first track. I have to admit that I missed the piano, but it returns at about 16 minutes in. The piano and drones seem to take turns in the limelight. It almost sounds like this is more than one track – at almost 12 minutes in, the track stops, then starts again. Overall, this is nice background / reading music. It doesn't demand a lot of the listener and easily slides into the background. The disc as a whole weighs in at 41:39.
By eskaton

Review Unruhr:
(...) One of the most beautiful albums of this year so far. (...) Even though I'm not really a piano-fan, this composition (...) has such an irresistible drive between variation and repetition that the instrument as such sounds "new", unspent and without cliches. (...) This is one those records which aren't only capable of suspending time, but offering new details with each listen.
By n

Review Musique Machine:
In a sense this is the antithesis to the Bexar Bexar album I reviewed earlier. That album conveyed the feeling of chilling out on an afternoon, after a burning hot day. This album is more of a chill, but equally soothing.
As the title suggest the atmosphere is icey and cold. After a lonely flute which introduces opening track Silence Thoughts II we'll get to meet the tender pianoplaying of Miina. Minimal and moving in cycles this first track is basically a solo piano piece. Along the course of the second, much longer, title track the piano gets treated by electronics. While the piano tinkers on in a cyclic fashion, Tobias Fischer (Feu Follet) echoes, processes and morphs the sounds to add to the atmosphere of sparkling ice-crystals, calm and serene, like sitting in the halls of an icecave.
The Finnish/German combination presented here works very well, and taking the "vol. 1" from the title we'll probably see more of them in the future. With this first CDr-release they sure start on a good foot with an interesting mix of contemporary composed music, ambient and a mild sense of drone.
By Martijn Busink

Review by Chain DLK:
This is some nice minimalist piano / drone work. The website describes the disc this way: "The Icicle Lectures Vol. 1 sees Fischer combining the glacial drones of the predecessor with the warm radiating piano drops of Finnish discovery Miina Virtanen. The end result is an airy, hardly tangible composition of removal and recurrence. Like feathers falling down on an icy surface in slow motion." There are only two tracks here. Track 1, "Silence Thoughts II," is a short, pretty minimal piano piece. Rather enjoyable. The second track, "The Icicle Lectures Vol. 1," is much longer, weighing in at 34 minutes. This track is a bit more involved, building in complexity and depth. It consists mostly of slowly changing drones, with much less of the piano that figured so prominently in the first track. I have to admit that I missed the piano, but it returns at about 16 minutes in. The piano and drones seem to take turns in the limelight. It almost sounds like this is more than one track – at almost 12 minutes in, the track stops, then starts again. Overall, this is nice background / reading music. It doesn't demand a lot of the listener and easily slides into the background. The disc as a whole weighs in at 41:39.
By eskaton

Review Unruhr:
(...) One of the most beautiful albums of this year so far. (...) Even though I'm not really a piano-fan, this composition (...) has such an irresistible drive between variation and repetition that the instrument as such sounds "new", unspent and without cliches. (...) This is one those records which aren't only capable of suspending time, but offering new details with each listen.
By n

Review Musique Machine:
In a sense this is the antithesis to the Bexar Bexar album I reviewed earlier. That album conveyed the feeling of chilling out on an afternoon, after a burning hot day. This album is more of a chill, but equally soothing.
As the title suggest the atmosphere is icey and cold. After a lonely flute which introduces opening track Silence Thoughts II we'll get to meet the tender pianoplaying of Miina. Minimal and moving in cycles this first track is basically a solo piano piece. Along the course of the second, much longer, title track the piano gets treated by electronics. While the piano tinkers on in a cyclic fashion, Tobias Fischer (Feu Follet) echoes, processes and morphs the sounds to add to the atmosphere of sparkling ice-crystals, calm and serene, like sitting in the halls of an icecave.
The Finnish/German combination presented here works very well, and taking the "vol. 1" from the title we'll probably see more of them in the future. With this first CDr-release they sure start on a good foot with an interesting mix of contemporary composed music, ambient and a mild sense of drone.
By Martijn Busink

Review Feindesland
A remarkable collaboration (...). An incredible opportunity to escape from these hectic times. (...) A must-buy!"
By Raphael Feldmann, Click here for full review

Review by Taakefrost
It was hard to imagine that Feu Follet could get any more beautiful and quiet than on "toi et le son". (...) One is even tempted to award this music the inherent character of a pervasive, almost meditative timelessness. (...) The recreation and the hence resulting recovery, between icicles, frozen lakes and the glaring north-sun, which softly carves through the icy winter-air, was arguably rarely transferred that intensively and authentically in experimental as well as artful way like it's the case on whole line here.
By Frostkrieg, Click here for full review

Review by Vital Weekly/Earlabs:   
Music by Feu Follet was reviewed before, as Tobias Fischer, the man behind the name, is also the man behind Einzeleinheit label, sending all of their releases to here. He also writes for the Tokafi webzine and is one half of an electronic duo called Suneaters. That's a different story. Here however he teams up with one Miina Virtanen from Finland, now residing in Munster, Germany. She plays the piano and has released two albums privately of her work. She got hooked with Fischer and together they made 'The Icicle Lectures Vol. 1'. It opens with a piece by Virtanen, solo on the piano. Music of stillness. Romantic but not kitsch. Satie meets Feldman. That sort of thing. The longest piece, thirty four minutes, is a collaboration between Virtanen and Fischer, which is by far the strongest work Fischer made so far. Chilling electronics that play a highly modest role in the music, with just a refined bit of Virtanen's piano playing. A bit of reverb adds that extra ambience. I am strongly reminded of the two albums Brian Eno made with Harold Budd in his ambient series, 'The Plateaux Of Mirror' and 'The Pearl', but then captured in one long track. It's a great melancholic and atmospheric music, perfect for a late night listening session. Curious about the next volumes!
By Frans de Waard
www.vitalweekly.net

Review by The Sound Projector
Nice surprise here from Ex Ovo, the 'new label for drone music and dulcet atmospheres' as they style themselves. Although an epithet like that comes close to a description you might find printed on a pack of Sainsbury's Taste The Difference Jersey double cream with a hint of brandy, I was very taken with one of these on initial spin. The Icicle Lectures Vol 1 by Feu Follet and Miina Virtanen contains a 34:00 title track which carries some overtones of Popol Vuh – quiet, simple piano figures and delicate, spectral dronework. Most absorbing.
By Ed Pinsent
www.thesoundprojector.com

Review by Wonderful Wooden Reasons:
Feu Follet is the pseudonym under which Ex Ovo founder Tobias Fischer produces his music. Here he teams up with Finnish composer and pianist Miina Virtanen. Track one (Silence Thoughts II) is solo Virtanen and is nice enough, technically proficient and musically engaging but nothing you haven't heard before. However, track two brings the two players together to produce a simply beautiful fusion of the organic and the electronic. Virtanen's playing is delicate and lyrical and matched with Fishers deft touch and feather-soft drones they create a wonderfully immersive soundworld reminiscent of Eno at his finest. Here's to volume II.
By Ian Holloway
www.myspace.com/wonderfulwoodenreasons

Review by Gothtronic:
It is in the first days of spring that the Feu Follet & Miina Virtanen CD found its way into my CD player. Although it's not really hot outside it is warm enough, or may be it is better to say a comfortable coldness, to open doors and windows. When I listen to the first track "Silence Thoughts II" written and composed by Miina Virtanen I wonder if the birds I hear come from outside or that they are mixed in the music. When the piano track ends I still hear the birds sing and I  have to realise they come from outside. This beautiful piano track really gives me the feeling of spring. The second track "The icicle lectures- vol.1" has also  a lot of piano, but here Tobias Fisher makes his contribution and added a lot of ambient feel to the music. He stretches the piano chords endlessly into drones and made them sound like blooming blossoms and flowers to open while the piano tones Miina plays sound like dew drops falling from the flower leaves. This makes you feel like on a Sunday morning. Then Thobias' music is played backwards which gave an unexpected alien element to the music. Despite the title "The icicle lectures" and the icicles on the cover this music give you the feeling it's spring. Perhaps cold spring mornings with frozen flowers at your windows but certainly it is spring on this album, you can almost smell it, or am I just  too much in the mood for spring?

This Album is pretty easy too listen to. Slow evolving melodies and heavenly piano patterns. Soft drones with a hint of melody encapsulated. The drones are almost icy which connects perfectly to the title but also have a warm and comfortable feeling. I even have the idea that the birds outside are singing because of the CD. In anyway the music makes me more aware of the birds. This is a heavenly ambient CD and feels like a relieve next to al those pretentious music I hear to often.

We al know the term Dark Ambient but if there is something like Light ambient this is the thing.
By Remco
www.gothtronic.com

Review by Sonic Curiosity:
The first of this release's two tracks features Virtanen alone. Ambient flute provides an airy intro to her piano performance. The melody remains interesting as it gradually swells in density to an emotional culmination.

The second track is much longer at 34 minutes. While composed by both Virtanen and Tobias Fischer (aka Feu Follet), the performance belongs exclusively to Fischer. Again, piano is the primary instrument. The tune begins with classical hesitancy, building in complexity and density until an electronic fog seethes behind the emphatic piano notes. Eventually, that fog moves to immerse the piano and each coexist in sonic equality, lending a haunting eeriness to the tune. By the end, the textural cloud overwhelms the stage and consumes the mix with its crystalline pitch.

Both compositions are basically classical in nature, unburdened by any pretentious modernism or experimentation. The melodies are soft and tenuous, never resorting to overbearing crashes or false drama. Light and airy, this music displays an endearing quality.
By Matt Howarth
www.soniccuriosity.com

Review by Ik Echt Weblog
(...) In my opinion, Feu Follet shows that he is looking for ways to do new things with drones. The piano keeps coming back as an instrument for combinations. Feu Follet is clearly not afraid of that. And that leads to pieces, which I'd immediately like to recommend to all listeners of more experimental material, as well as to those who like experiments with classical music. This is omething really nice once again.
By Jaap Kamminga (translated from Dutch original)
http://ikecht.web-log.nl/ikecht/