» Melancholy Jane

music & words by November video by Mr. 'Chillmoose' Hill

» It's November

November, the collaboration of Bernard Trontin and Simon Huw Jones has been released.
First reviews describe it as 'dark electronic ambient music of a confusing beauty', 'as pleasant to listen as the murmur of the wind' and 'a happiness for all the fans of And Also The Trees who cannot await the new album planned for 2007'. You can take a listen to the songs on the new official November website.

A couple of reviews: Premonition, Le Courrier. You'll find more on the November site. Please also share your impressions.

You may like to download the song 'Melancholy Jane' from the Shayo website.
There is also an official myspace site now.

You can order the CD (via PayPal) directly from the November website. American people might prefer doing a US-Order via Strange Fortune.

» November

November, the project of Bernard Trontin and Simon Huw Jones will be released through Shayo records. The album is self-titled. There is intention of doing some concerts in the course of 2007.
You can find an interview with November in issue 36 (Sep/Oct) of the French magazine D-side with a track from the album (A Day of Spring) on the enclosed CD.

More infos soon.

» Cirrus Minor

The live premier of Simon's side-project with Bernard Trontin was in September'05 in Casino-Théâtre, Genève. The song Cirrus Minor from this event can now be found free for download on the internet album 'Frank Bianchi - A tribute to the Caiman'.

Reportedly a metaphor for a drug experience the song was written 1969 by Roger Waters for the Pink Floyd soundtrack of the film 'More'. The song was named after a type of cloud formation.
The plot of the movie is about a foreign student who arrives in Paris and meets a girl who is into drugs. After falling in love with her, he gets addicted to heroin and eventually dies of an overdose.

In a churchyard by a river
Lazing in the haze of midday
Laughing in the grasses
And the graves

Yellow bird you are not long
In singing and in flying on
In laughing and in leaving

Willow weeping in the water
Waving to the river-daughters
Swaying in the ripples and the reeds

On a trip to cirrus minor
Saw an angel in the Sun
A thousand miles of moonlight later


(Also in remembrance of Roger Keith "Syd" Barrett who has passed away last week.)

» Le Théâtre Casino

"...so I made it to Geneva on the 11th to see what Simon and Bernard had achieved during all those months.
The venue "Le Théâtre Casino" was indeed a theater and I think it can hold about 250 people. This night it was close to being full.

Simon was on stage as he is with The Trees, elegant and impassionate. The music was conducted by Bernard who was standing behind a keyboard to control some samplers and expanders and even an digital turntable. There were two other musicians, Alexis and Vincent, to make sure the music was mostly played live (no recordings) - one of them was playing the piano, the electric bass and guitar and the Apple iBook (true!) and the other one was playing mainly another iBook and the guitar on the last song.

In the performance it was something from the Trees and something from the Gods. You could feel the intensity of Simon's contribution from his voice and his singing. Bernard has really achieved a good job on sounds, textures and the music he wrote is telling a story on its own. According to someone I met there, there was also something of the sound of the band Delirium in their music.

The show lasted for about a hour and the encore was a cover of Pink Floyd's "Cirrus Minor" (from the albums "More" and "Relics"). I don't know the original Floyd version but from a connoisseur point of view it seems like they did something original."

Thanks Patrick Dutrévis for his impressions.

» Radio Paradiso

On the 7th.Sep. there had been an radio interview with Bernard Trontin (in French) on the Swiss National radio.
He is talking about his project with Simon and their upcoming concert in Geneva. There was also a track premiered called Melancholy Jane.

Simon about the collaboration:
"... the music is different from what I do with And Also The Trees, but it is me which sings and I cannot 'hide' my voice, even if I try. Bernard Trontin is a drummer, but he works also much with samples, loops and keyboards. In fact, until now there is no percussion on the pieces on which we worked. These last years Bernard wrote film musics and for television. He wanted to develop some of his ideas while working with various singers and I was one of the voices which he had in his mind. He then discovered that we live both in the same city, in Geneva. So we met..."