PREMIERE | Paper Tapes, "No Answer"
The debut solo endeavor of Cyril Angleys, aka Paper Tapes; press photo courtesy of the artist.
The best pop arts are rooted in immediacy and the power of imagination. These creative events strike us in visceral ways that overtake all of our available sensory faculties, consuming our attentions and focus toward something that overtakes us in beguiling way. These new emerging entities expound upon our trains of thought, interrupting the normal trajectories and pathways and expanding the arenas of how we witness our world, others, what is possible that was formerly considered impossible and so many more things that we never before took into consideration. These full immersions into new realms of phenomena evoke new echelons of existence; we then can observe our existence as the before and the after of our own engagement with the work in question. These heighten our senses, extend the possibilities of our reality and forever change us in ways that we might not realize until much time thereafter.
Having graced the world with the sophisti-pop beauty of “Cut the Chord” - Lyon, France wunderkind Paper Tapes presents the world debut of the communicative questions and curiosities of “No Answer” from the upcoming album Child via Géographie / Modulor. The solo endeavor of Brace ! Brace ! guitarist Cyril Angleys, the artist evokes the immediate narratives from the concrete corridors that lean toward imaginative opportunities of the mystic and magical. Working alongside longtime collaborator Barth Bouveret (also from Brace ! Brace ! and fellow Géographie alum Marble Arch, Good Morning TV); Cyril blend strings, keys and a sinewy delivery of song that moves in rapturous ways like a midday autumnal sojourn through the thought and spirit at the heart of the fall season.
Paper Tapes curates a style of sound that materializes and floats like the smoke of a cigarette enjoyed in the afternoon on the outside patio of a beloved brasserie. “No Answer” dearly strums like streams of thought, careening like lost and all but forsaken conversations that transform into a monologue stored into the recesses of archives kept in the metal file cabinets of the mind’s library. Angleys draws upon a love for vintage film scores that generously adds to the atmospheric component found in the artist’s craft. From a mix that hazily drifts upward and outward, “No Answer” blooms with the restless and yearning heart of the hapless romantic, painting portraits of a lonesome desperado abandoned at cafes and loitering on cobble stoned street corners by a pay phone (awaiting the call, or call back that might never arrive with its fateful ring). “No Answer” is for the dreamers, only the lonely and the beloved ones looking for a way to connect with that special one that adds so much happiness and bountiful amounts of beauty to their world.
Antoine Magnien created a visual collage of divers in a short work set to the illustrious splendor of "No Answer":
Cyril Angleys provided the following insights on the creative process behind the new solo album:
The sophisticated pop realm of Cyril Angleys; press photo courtesy of the artist.
Everybody’s writing and composing in Brace ! Brace ! But I needed a project with more latitude. At that time, I started to get into synth, to write songs with synth. Then I figured that I could make my own thing with it, in total autonomy.
Immediacy is what strikes me the most regarding pop, and music in general. There’s something
really instinctive in the way you can work out chords on a synth. A chord can mean so many
different things depending on which texture you chose.
The nouveau prince of pensive pop — Cyril Angleys of Paper Tapes; press photo courtesy of the artist.
An album is a long run, it’s more challenging. With this format, you need to reach deeper into
yourself. But it also gives you way more possibilities, more space to work on structures, instrumentals, to experiment, in order to tell your story.Since I was a kid, I always had a close bond with imagination. I wish that my music can have a kind of evocation power. For instance, I like to listen to music in trains because I’ve nothing else to do, I just have to let it flow. I’m always looking for this escaping thing, that’s why film scores are so important do me.
Cover art for Child courtesy of Simon Heller.
I wanted a direct picture. [Simon Heller’s cover art for Child] refers to the passing and the ending of childhood, and I think this ice cream is a good way of picturing it. This album is a milestone in my life, but it’s also a way to look at certain behaviors, sometimes very childish, even flippant, that I can observe around me.
Paper Tapes’ debut album Child will be available November 10 via Géographie / Modulor.