Bastien Pons paints a soundscape with “One Minute of America”
Courtesy of Bastien Pons
In his new single, “One Minute of America,” the French sound artist and composer Bastien Pons takes us to a place where history hides behind distortion and emotion flutters through static. After the release of his debut album, “Blinded,” which was much acclaimed for its eclecticism and blend of experimental, ambient, and musique concrète, Pons is back with a work that sounds intimate and cinematic at once, fragile and huge.
Constructed from archival recordings and formed around thick layers of eerie, enveloping soundscapes, “One Minute of America” unfolds into a mere minute of eternity, filled with feeling, meaning, and mood. It’s a song about noise, stillness, and transience, as well as glimpses of history that inform collective memory.
This track will resonate with fans of Murcof, Coil, Andy Stott, and 2Kilos&More. In “One Minute of America,” Bastien Pons digs, reimagines, and then reanimates the past. It’s a track that demands you to sit down, listen up, and face the sounds that hang out somewhere between the racket and repose. Moody and mysterious and very human, “One Minute of America” is another brave step in Pons’s handling of sound as memory.
