Home

Streams of Europe

Streams of Europe was initially the code name of a sound and game design experiment. The idea was to create a soundtrack first, then build a video game upon it. Several albums and live sessions later, it appeared music had become a bit more than just a soundtrack.

The imaginary world at the origin of the project started to take form around 1994, as a pen & paper role-playing game. Many changes occured through the years, and many other media were tried. The musical aspect only emerged in the end of 2007. It’s meant to describe the horrors and wonders of Europe, after the Rain.

Streams of Europe evolved to a multimedia collective in the beginning of 2009. They’re currently focused on the development of the game. It seems like music is still too important to be simply put on hold, though.

 

Albums in progress

2009.02.19 - Degenesis

Unexpected and using a different approach than earlier works, Degenesis' first track is the result of a live improvisation. Based upon a drone simultaneously recorded while played looped over itself, it goes beyond the usual boundaries of Streams of Europe's music. This album will follow no clear path, thus we can say it will probably aim to epic, dantesque aesthetics.

Cover based upon a picture by Huw Alexander Ogilvie.

 

2008.03.26 - The Many Lives of a Clone

Chronologically, this is Streams of Europe’s second album since its composition started after Meanders. Technically it's mostly the fourth album because it's still in progress. The first track was uploaded on March 26th and the last one on October 11st, in 2008. Compared to the first album Meanders, The Many Lives of a Clone is probably more passionnate than meditative. While the fractal structures are still here, the sound treatment is sometimes harsher, and globally tends more to raw emotion than contemplation. This album also goes deeper in the description of Europe after the Rain, revealing a bit of information about its inhabitants through slightly cryptic titles.

 

Full albums

2008.10.22 - Neorganics

Neorganics is titled after the exhibition of the same name. It’s a live album recorded on October 17th, 2008, at the Atelier Gustave, during the vernissage. The original live performance had a duration of about three hours, but the second part (which was pure improvisation) was lost in a “not enough RAM to record everything properly” accident.

The cover is based upon a picture by Isabelle Smolinski, who also contributed to the exhibition.

 

2008.06.02 - Damaged Memory Strata

Streams of Europe’s third album. It was released in 2008, June 2nd, while The Many Lives of a Clone, the second album, was still in progress and being released one track after the other.

This is quite an unusual album for various reasons detailed in this journal entry.

Cover based upon a picture by Jonathan Zander, AKA Digon3 at Wikimedia Commons, under the Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic licence.

 

2007.15.11 - Meanders

Meanders is Streams of Europe’s first album, released in the end of 2007. Most of the tracks are based upon fractal melodies generated and reworked through the use of various softwares. This album is meant to be a kind of soundtrack for an imaginary world, and the starting point of an upcoming independent video game.

The album’s title stands for its experimental aspect. It’s all about exploring unknown places and trying to draw a musical map linking them all, while sticking to a distant background story. Composing was like travelling down a river with many meanders and oxbow lakes: you know you’ll get closer to the sea in the end, without knowing exactly where nor when.