The Breakdown
Pinning, hash-tagging, mood-boarding, even crisply describing Joni Void’s music gets no easier. Maybe the role Void plays is as a post post-sampling, cut & paste collagist or re-imaginer of the already re-imagined? Perhaps experimental glitch artist, sonic mind-scrambler or underground sound documentarian sums up other dimensions of their singular approach? Probably the best that can be said is that Joni Void makes tunes that are Joni Void tunes and if you’re not familiar with their work then you’ve missed plenty.
First came the resplendent, micro-sample assemblages of ‘Selfless’ in 2017 and 2019’s ‘Mise En Abyme’. By the time ‘Everyday Is The Song’ came along a couple of years ago, Void was moulding music from his plethora of sources into tunes that were less energy sapping and uncannily emotional. So now that Jean Néant aka Joni Void is onto his fourth album for Constellation, ‘Every Life Is A Light’, the question hanging in the haze is whether they’ve consolidated or veered away on another creative tangent.
The answer is somewhere in between. Void still draws from an endless warren of found material, from cassette snatches to live jams, and the detailing they use to craft new songs continues to bristle with intricacy. On ‘Every Life Is A Light’ though the aura seems less frantic and frazzled, which might be surprising as the recordings were made over a period when Néant had no permanent home and was living in DIY collective spaces. Maybe this drawn out instability had Void working on a more settled bunch of songs underpinned by similar trip-hop rolled beats from their johnny ripper days
Take Time Zone as a guide with its lo-fi skip and effortless jump into a kitsch electro-pop vibe. Void keeps things minimal and focused here, Japanese indie-diva Haco’s coy but quizzical vocals out-front as the Minyo Crusaders skank gears up. A similar aesthetic shimmers through the dream wave ripples of Cloud Level. Another artist from Japan, Ytamo brings her lullaby vocalising to the song, all coos and twinkling harmonies rolling with the smoochy synthetic rhumba rhythm.
It’s impressive how delicate Void’s touch is on these songs, the urge to deconstruct is restrained but their knack for making genuine, innovative music shines through. As a producer you wonder what they could bring to the sagging hyperpop arena. On the evidence of Vertigo that notion might not be so quirky. Collaborating with the intrepid Toronto sonic artist Sook-Yin Lee, on vocals, crunching drums and pumping bass, there’s a tough Massive Attack pulse energising the song. Lee’s deepening voice gets sultry and serious before a dramatic twist, as the beats crumble, the loops revolve and an eerie Vangelis sample yearns.
Such collaboration has always been a driver in all previous Néant projects whether as a solo Joni Void release or as part of the experimental portal Être Ensemble. Their last outing in this latter guise was the delectable ‘Sans Toi’, an emotional, almost nostalgic reminiscence laced in French pop samples and trip-hop rhythmics. The release suggested an increased confidence in letting the beats flow coherently and to full effect, a development in approach that Void continues on ‘‘Every Life Is A Light’. Take the shuffling dubness that holds steady through Du Parc, as fragmented toy tones, radio interference and N NAO’s eerie whispers agitate New Age Steppers style. Then there’s the sonorous Event Flow, where a stately synth pattern drifts to chimes and an ambling breakbeat groove. It’s a minimal, concentrated piece of Void music, injected with dreamy dynamism by sampled demo chants and a poetic statement from the legendary chanteuse Alanis Obomsawin. Void even makes space for a giddy, glitching hip-hop work-out on Story Board featuring online phenomenon Pink Navel.
Despite such signs of a new found focus in Void’s music, the foundation of ‘‘Every Life Is A Light” remains an irrepressible drive to sample and create. Death Is Not The End and In Between Places are equally frenetic and fantastic, multi-dimensional sound collages as head spinning as anything on Void’s wild debut. Pizzacato Five, Lali Puna, and a snatch from the Daniel Johnston documentary, the sample sources listed in the album notes are a crate diggers dream and highlight Néant’s encyclopaedic muso credentials. But cleverness has never been the point of Void’s work, what they make honestly reflects where they’re at.
Confused, agitated, torn or content, Void’s music probes his emotions in a way that affects you. On ‘‘Every Life Is A Light” such reaching out seems more open and immediate. The warmth and joy of Muffin – A Song For My Cat oozes through this new age purr, from the tingling piano loop to the soft soulful pulse, gentle Japanese flute calls to guest vocalist Muffin’s pitch perfect ‘meows’. Significantly the album is bookended by the opening welcome of Everyday – The Sequel, a sleepy psychedelic raga, and to close Joni Sadler Forever, Void’s upbeat, drum pounding homage to the sadly missed Lungbutter drummer and Constellation team member. These touching tunes mark out an album which unravels and resolves, a circular journey which stands as Void’s most accomplished work to date.
Get your copy of ‘Every Life Is A Light‘ by Joni Void from your local record store or direct from Constellation HERE
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