Roedelius - Jardin Au Fou

A singular and moving entry in ambient-mogul Roedelius’ discography. Lyrical barrel organ pieces, ghostly piano waltz and pastoral field recordings. Recalling Erik Satie, Yoran’s Montparnasse, Dominique Lawalrée and Janet Sherbourne. The rare kind of vividly evocative albums, that sits next to Virginia Astley’s From Garden Where We Feel Secure and Ernest Hood’s Neighborhood… Unique and gorgeous.

Roedelius’s solo albums are some of the most intimate pieces of work to emanate from the circle of respectable German ambient kingpins he belongs to. His series of Selbsportrait offer unprecedented examples of delicacy in synth-relying electronic music. This Jardin Au Fou LP is yet another sidestep - and a unique one - in Roedelius’ career.

I didn’t know this album until quite recently, when I bought a copy out of curiosity ; and I have to say that it was a shock, the kind I did not experience for a long time. For the past 10 years, I’ve been eagerly trying to find records that provided a similar experience to that provided by two of the records that are the dearest to me, Ernest Hood’s Neighborhood and Virginia Astley’s From Garden Where We Feel Secure, records that seem to build a world around the listener, that exists within its own space and time - an American small-town in the case of Ernest Hood, an Arcadian garden in South England in the case of Virginia Astley. Jardin Au Fou (The Madman’s Garden) unveils a very personal world of fantasy, an imaginary Finzi-Contini garden where decaying merry-go-rounds - among other ruins - evoke Max Ophüls’ long-gone Paris.

It’s a dream within a dream: a memory of a Paris that never were, buried in the corner of a secret garden that exists in the mind of a German electronic music pioneer. A nostalgia-tinged yet impossible vision, created by Roedelius, long before Kieślowski directed his French films and Jean-Pierre Jeunet his disgusting Amélie. (VG/VG+ small scratch on side B, priced accordingly)

Tracklist

1. Fou Fou
2. Toujours
3. Rue Fortune
4. Balsam
5. Café Central
6. Le Jardin
   
7. Gloria Dolores
8. Étoiles
9. Schöne Welt
   
10. Final