E42.A8 is a project based around an disused farm/barn in the countryside around Tournai. It's involving a rotating, variable and open cast of musicians mostly living all along and close to the Walloon backbone, from Lille to Liège, passing by Tournai & Bruxelles. The central idea is improvisation, as free as possible, during the space of a week-end mostly. E42.A8 lies between a place, a process, a group or several, or maybe as we were introduced in Frankfurt once : a Musikkapelle.

We like to think that what matters are the following guiding notions : freedom, play with opening(s) & interaction, resulting in music marked by textures, variations between pulse & stretch, moments of varying intensities, détournements (Verwandlung?), oscillations in saturation and silence.

Well now let's write a few words about classification and lookalikes. Here are a few subjective clues : Kontakta, Yellow Swans, MIMEO, Morphogenesis, Dead C, Faust, Kapotte Muziek, Wolf Eyes, Erstwhile music, R.O.T.

These are the links provided by the label for the artists involved:

Quentin Conrate ° Quaukappen (m/ Mathieu Lilin ), ° Wing in Ground Effect ( m/ François Ella-Meyé & Pierre Denjean ), ` Lunar Error (Lebrun / Lilin / Colpaert / Lemaire / Ella-Meyé / Coquelet / Rathier / Ménard / Denjean / Conrate ), ^ terres rares (Mathieu Lilin, Pierre Denjean, François Ella-Meyé, Claude Colpaert, Quentin Conrate ), f Left Handers (Julia Danzinger/Quentin Conrate )  https://janet-dronemusic.bandcamp.com/ ° Marabout et le Vide ( w/ Gaute Granli, Mathieu Lilin, Quentin Conrate, Thomas Coquelet )

Mathieu Lilin ° Quaukappen ` Lunar Error  ^ terres rares ° Marabout et le Vide ( w/ Gaute Granli, Mathieu Lilin, Quentin Conrate, Thomas Coquelet )

Benoît Deuxant ° Martiensgohome http://mgh.constantvzw.org/  https://soundcloud.com/martiensgohome   https://martiensgohome.bandcamp.com/   

° Plochingen https://soundcloud.com/plochingen-1

Lucien Rapilly https://soundcloud.com/rapilly-lucien ° 15%Chauve

Flavien Gillié https://soundcloud.com/soundisall  https://soundisall.bandcamp.com/   _ Ademuru ( w/ Jerôme Mabille aka Dropthedyle ) : https://soundcloud.com/ademuru

Grégory Duby https://soundcloud.com/gregory_duby Jesus is my Son https://soundcloud.com/jesusismysonofficial ° Solah ° K-Branding ° Martiensgohome http://mgh.constantvzw.org/  https://soundcloud.com/martiensgohome   https://martiensgohome.bandcamp.com/   

Sylvain van iniitu ° Blindhæð http://ruidemos.org/rdmblindhaed.htm  http://www.iniitu.net/  https://www.instagram.com/e42.a8/  https://soundcloud.com/ini-itu

* 4lpp4 ch1n0 https://newyorkhaunted.bandcamp.com/album/nyh203-4llp4-ch1n0-vulgar-display-of-debug ° DJ Cardinal Mercier https://camembertelectrique.bandcamp.com/track/ad-lucem ` Frogoroth ( w/ Dave Phillips, Yannick Dauby, Slavek Kwi )  

Lydia Baziz https://tanukirecords.bandcamp.com/album/niobium

Jérémy Cornil https://soundcloud.com/esiturecords/sets/esitu-k06-cornil-reliefs-1

Thomas Coquelet ° Chaman Chômeur ( m/ Léo Rathier, Marc-Antoine Moercant ) https://becoq.bandcamp.com/  ° Lunar Error (id.)  U : http://lastdaydeaf.com/becoq-records/   http://www.jazzus.fr/?p=501 ° Slash Roubex https://slashroubex.bandcamp.com ° Marabout et le Vide ( w/ Gaute Granli, Mathieu Lilin, Quentin Conrate, Thomas Coquelet ) ° 15%Chauve ° Nuits

Frédéric Tentelier https://www.frederictentelier.com frederictentelier.bandcamp.com

Pierre Denjean https://pierredenjean.bandcamp.com/music ` Lunar Error ^ terres rares ° Wing in Ground Effect ( m/ François Ella-Meyé & Pierre Denjean )

Ludovic Médery ° Fissures https://soundcloud.com/ludovic-medery  https://ludovicmedery.bandcamp.com/ http://ludovicmedery.tumblr.com/ ° Ilya P. ° Vox Rumori ° Rotorelief

Léo Rathier ` Lunar Error ° Chaman Chômeur

Alice Just https://alicejust.bandcamp.com/ https://soundcloud.com/alicejust http://alice-just.tumblr.com/

Arthur Lacomme http://www.arthurlacomme.net

Yau Fan ° Exoterrism https://soundcloud.com/exoterrism ° Exo_C ° ExoE42

Pierre Mauger ° Slash Roubex https://slashroubex.bandcamp.com

Mariko Fujita

Sabri Meddeb https://soundcloud.com/sabrimeddeb https://sabrimeddeb.bandcamp.com

Joaquim Cauqeraumont ° Polarisation Sonore https://polarisationsonore.bandcamp.com/ https://cactusinebranlableeditions.com/produit/derriere-lenvers-du-decor/

mastering by Frédéric Alstadt https://angstromrecords.bandcamp.com http://www.angstrom-mastering.com

"It would be a shame to seize as an excuse the 5 years of existenceof E42.A8 to definitively delimit, or even close, what running thatexperience has implied so far. This compilation aims to further openoccasions, by highlighting what some of us wanted to remember as tracesof their presence within E42.A8 If E42.A8 is neither a group nor alaboratory, what is it? The first hypothesis would not account for theattempt to constantly undermine stability, and for trying to always stayopen to new grafts; the second would inevitably reduce everything thathappens there to the scientific model of an experience without human,aesthetic or transcendental significance. The term that seems to us bestto account for this suspension of always coming back to "the same" isprobably that of "situation". There is both a journey towards thespatial dimension, most of the time an abandoned barn in thecountryside, in the acute angle formed by the crossing of two highwaysserving a half-industrial, half-rural area; a journey as well towardsthe dimension of time, that of a "session" lasting one or two full days;all of this in variable company, thus unfolding a real combinatoryprocess. We still have to explain the goal of these sessions, and howthey are aiming at the creation of freely improvised music, giving aplace to both acoustic and electronic instruments, as well as allelectro-acoustic manipulations. An initial impulse has undoubtedly beenAnla Courtis' suggestion: "to create places where improvisation ispossible for all". Then, the progressive accretion of improvisers andexperimenters of all kinds, interested in the premises of what seems tobe possible there, coming from various places scattered along an axiscrossing Belgium and the North of France : along the Walloon ridge ornear the coal basin from Nord-Pas-de-Calais to Liege, via the Borinage,while extending as far as Brabant. As such, an axis of communicationand transport routes, heritage of a history with geological foundations,whose meaning has to be reconstructed; an axis celebrating the porosityof borders, both national and stylistic. Finally, a guiding principle,worded as follows: "REC PLAY SHARE". We are clearly meeting to play,without much further guidance as to what is expected; everything isrecorded; the recordings are shared between each participant, who beyondthat apply the maxim that Rabelais attributes to the abbey of Thelemeand which will be found below. Most of the time this is done without anaudience, except during "extramuros" sessions, faithful in that to beingdogmatically faithful to nothing. The rest obviously falls within therange of questions common to any improvisation process: how to playtogether? How to live together ? in a broader sense, how to payattention to the other? how does the other restrict or potentiate me?how to deal with the unexpected? how can we work together towardssomething? What is this desire which pushes us to throw ourselves intothe bottomlessness of free improvisation? should we aim forcomplementarity or antagonism? to what extent do you confine yourself toone space or leave some to others? How does the absence of an audiencerelease us from the pressure to be spectacular? What is this desire toplay, without an audience? What pleasure is there in simply gettingtogether in those interstitial moments, those of meals, drinks,discussions? Produced by trying to stay as close to this line aspossible, this compilation is the result of edits made by variousparticipants, using material from sessions in which they participated. There was no control on the resulting pieces, everyone received carteblanche. Again we therefore preferred multiple, kaleidoscopic andfragmented points of view of these first 5 years, rather than ahomogeneous sum. We hope you can share the pleasure we had in meeting,and perhaps arouse the desire to join us, one way or another. DO AS THOUWILT"-E42.A8