Thomas Belhom (Vogue / David Grubbs / France) March 16, 2007

THOMAS BELHOM
LeMans, France. apparent extent. drums, guitar, loops and vocals.
(David Grubbs, Stuart Staples9
http://www.myspace.com/thomasbelhom
CD/LP Thomas Belhom / Cheval Oblique (distributed by Hausmusik VÖ
16.2.2007)

featuring

VOLKER ZANDER
Calexico. München. apparent extent. bass
+
JAMES MERLE THOMAS
Brooklyn, Hessen. drums

DJ DER SAMTBODY
goldmund. girls united

Belhom got a drum set for his 14th birthday. "My happiest moment in
life." After living way too long with hippie parents and their circus
friends, "I became sick of that. I became hardcore." Belhom moves to
Paris, plays Hardcore forms a theatrical music group and starts working
as pyro technician in the Catalan theatrum monstrum La Fura dels Baus.
He experiments with "straight edge" and "being a scooter driving mod".
He reads Lacan, listens to The Kinks, Hüsker Dü, Chet Baker. Finally he
makes the move to Tucson, Arizona, to live a dream with his musical
partner Naim Amor. It's the end of the 90s and the question is "Where is
a real place?" The Amor/Belhom Duo is looking for Cadillacs and dry
emptyness, as opposition to Ibis Hotel Paris trash. The scene in Tucson:
Al Foul, Al Perry, Bob Log III, urban camouflage, thrift store
economics, Spoke era Calexico. Belhom falls in love with the painter
Viva Yazon. They will marry later and move back to Le Mans, to an
ancient farmhouse in a post 9/11 world with "fucking borders".
The good thing about booking shows for Thomas Belhom is, that club
owners know him, love him. He toured a lot. He played with Naim and his
Amor/Belhom Duo all over the US and EU. Thomas backed up David Grubbs or
the French singer Red. Right now he is on tour with singer Stuart
Staples of Tindersticks fame.
But Thomas Belhom is best in his own element, when he sets the tone of a
night, when he switches from loop to beat, from sticks to brushes, from
jazzy to gamelanish, when he swings around on his Drehstuhl.

A Concert
October 16, 2006. A monday night. La Laiterie, Strasbourg, France. The
small club is filled up. Used-to-be-ravers sit on the floor. The renewed
folk thing. Vollbärte. C'est le era postelectronique? Belhom gets behind
his set of drums. "When I live in France / it's different" he starts
singing. He records a guitar loop on his ancient loop-pedal, makes a
180° on his drum stool, turns his back to the audience, picks up his
brushes and ... that's were the game starts. Belhom barely touches the
drums and his birthday party of tools and things used as percussions.
His drumming is in constant tune with the loop, but seldom a steady
beat. It's fluent, light, sparkeling drumming. This procedure (the loop,
the song, the lush non-repetitive beat, the "gongs" and "blinks" )
continue for the next 50 mesmerizing minutes.

The Record
Cheval Oblique is Belhom's fifth solo record. All homerecorded basic
tracks with sparse studio overdubs. What seems lose and -in a jazz
sense- lush improvised is carefully composed. Belhom is one uncomparable
musician and Cheval Oblique is a Spaziergang of a record.
There are lots of guests. For example the brilliant Pierre Favard
laying down a sun-ra-esque organ on Who's Who. There is Volker Zander on
bass (Porto Cesareo). There are Cécile Legare and Jérôme de Pascual on
trombone and trumpet on Electrolyse. Some very carefully placed field
recordings are the only moments on the record, where spoken language
appears.

Tracklist and Production Notes
01. Heaven 5:04 - TB: drums, percussions, synthesizer, accordion. 02.
Who's who? 2:55 - TB: drums, loop source: record ("Raël" from The Who)
with "wax preparation". Pierre Favard: organ. 03. 7000 Islands 3:02 -
TB: percussions, synthesizer, guitars, field recordings: farm animals in
grandville, France. 04. Oblique 7:25 - TB : drums, percussions, guitars,
synthesizer, reversed tape. 05. Boulangerie 0:34 - TB: field recording:
boulangerie in grandville, France. 06. Aircraft 3:29 - TB: drums,
percussions, synthesizer. Jean-François Chauffour: montage. 07. Mont St
Michel 0:58 - TB: field recording: streets of mont st michel, france.
08. Pianomeka 2:24 - TB: drums, percussions, synthesizer, toy piano.
Cécile Legare: trombone. 09. Electrolyse 5:44 - TB: drums, percussions,
guitars, synthesizer. Cécile Legare: trombone. Jérôme de Pascual:
trumpet. 10. Banjo 1:36 - TB: banjo, percussions on electric guitar. 11.
Sushi 2:57 - TB: drums, percussions. 12. Porto Cesareo 3:07 - TB: drums,
electric guitar, accordion, synthesizer, gopichank. Volker Zander:
contrabass, violoncello, Jean-François Chauffour: montage. 13. Cheval
3:43 - TB: drums, percussions, synthesizer, kazoo. Total Time 43:04
Recorded by Bruno Green in Rennes, France. Except "7000 Islands",
"Banjo" recorded by Jean-François Chauffour in Paris, France. "Oblique",
"Boulangerie", "Mont St. Michel" recorded by Thomas Belhom in Le Mans &
Grandville, France. Strings on "Porto Cesareo" recorded by Michael
Heilrath at Bereich 03 in Munich, Germany. Produced by Thomas Belhom &
Bruno Green. Mastered by Uwe Teichert, Brussels. Thomas Belhom is
published by ici d'ailleurs. Production: apparent extent, 2007.
Thomas says: "un grand merci" to Bruno Green, Volker Zander,
Jean-François Chauffour, Jack Garnier et Viva Yazon.

Thomas Belhom
http://www.myspace.com/thomasbelhom
http://www.apparent-extent.com/index.php?id=117
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xjada_le-belhom-a-la-chapelle

Download mp3
http://homepage.mac.com/apparent.extent/FileSharing8.html

apparent extent
http://www.apparent-extent.com
http://www.myspace.com/apparentextent

Booking and Label
volker zander / apparent.extent@mac.com

promoter amSTARt
amstart1@ag-parka.de