They Fall But You Don't

Performed, recorded & mixed by Paul Régimbeau at The White Desk Studio between November 2015 and May 2016.

Additional arrangements (Mellotron & Critter & Guitari Pocket Piano) performed & recorded by Frédéric D. Oberland at Magnum Diva Studio on May 2016.

Mastered By Lawrence English at 158.

These last two years, Paul Régimbeau had put «Mondkopf», his most personal musical project, the one he started in his teenage years, in stand-by mode. The rich arrangement work that came to define his sound wasn’t fitting his desire of simplicityand intensity anymore. His different collaborations (Autrenoir, Violent Magic Orchestra with Vampilla & Pete Swanson, Foudre!, Oiseaux-Tempêtes) made him explore new aspects of not only producing, but playing electronic music like a regular member of a band: the young producer was experimenting being a musician, and embracing the experience. But after a year without composing, everything changed on the tragic night of November 13th.

Without really thinking about it, on this very night, the Parisian set up the machines he had acquired in the last few months, and started improvising what became the first song of his new album: They fall, but you don’t. Since that moment and for the few months that followed, Paul regularly spent a night every now and thenjust turning on the machines, finding the right sounds, and recording what he felt in the moment. While previous records reflected sometimes monthsof fine-tuning, these represent the mood of one evening, one night, the ones when you let go to the melancholy of the moment. The album, much like a diary, is the compilation of moments of escaping reality through making music, in a chaotic and dark year.

There weren’t supposed to be a new Mondkopf record, like the ones before: they just took shape night after night, almost by themselves. Paul wasn’t sure he wanted to make them into a record –but then he felt it would be a good thing to have them out, and be able to mark the end of this period.Mondkopf always said that had he learnt how to play guitar, he would perhaps never have done electronic music: this album reflects that idea of music not being a technical or stylistic challenge, but a way of dealing with life, and working out one’s own emotions. This record has something familiar with Mondkopf’s previousoutput for his raw textures and his half-light atmospheres. But the rest is a radical change for him. The pads of They fall... are neither backwards, nor futuristic; together with the slight touch of Mondkopf’s own fragile vocals, they exhale a discreet flavour of just beingthere.

Everything is direct, easy and focused, going for what’s essential. They fall but you don’tappears as the singular manifesto of a relationship to electronic music that leaves out ideas of innovation and scenes, and resembles more the language of a new folk music, deeply evocative, powerful and free.