Noémi Büchi - Does It Still Matter
With strong, unpredictable rhythms and complex harmonies, where relentless melodies stir emotions, Switzerland’s Noémie Büchi adds another chapter to her already impressive repertoire. ‘Does It Still Matter’ is her third album and, following on from ‘Hyle’, ‘Matière’ and ‘Matter’, Büchi once again takes the word ‘matter’ as her central theme. In this new work, the meaning alternates between verb and noun. It begins with the mesmerising ‘We Are Only Matter’ and builds to the brutally powerful ‘What If It Doesn’t Matter’. As the album draws to a close, Büchi’s vision of the future becomes increasingly macabre. ‘Biocide’, ‘Collective Disaster’ and the stunning symphonic closer ‘Sépulcral’, which leaves little to the imagination, thrust the listener into the reality of collective catastrophe. Büchi has an urgent message and uses her music in an intensely passionate way to convey it. Her sonic palette is a collision of symphonic, orchestral music and meticulously curated, deconstructed club sounds. Just listen to ‘Window Display Of The Year’, where baroque-tinged harpsichord is crushed by contemporary sonic manipulation. This collision of old and new is, as she puts it, “an attempt to break down the boundaries of the past, to reconstruct it and to abandon rigid genre thinking”. On ‘Does It Still Matter’, Büchi excels at combining compositional influences from the past with a thoroughly modern digital sound. Impactful on ‘Infernal Stability’, dreamy on ‘Can We Be Completely Transparent’ and emotional on the short ‘Desiring The Desire’. An impressive release that not only deserves a special place in your record collection, but also leaves a deeper impression with every listen.