Behind Discodor are prolific multi-instrumentalist, producer and sound engineer Pierre Duplan, who has worked with artists such as Shawn Lee and Saint Etienne, and musician, DJ and vinyl aficionado Lee Skelly (The Peas, Shawn Lee’s Ping Pong Orchestra). Both artists have shared a deep love of analog sounds, obscure library records, and handmade grooves for years.
Their debut album “Discodor” is a seamless continuation of their first two excellent EPs, on which they had experimented purely instrumentally with cinematic vintage sounds, arrangements and moods. The album format allows the two musicians to expand their ideas even further and place them in a larger context.
Everything sounds organic, warm and analog on “Discodor.” Skelly and Duplan blend lascivious, treacly bass arrangements à la Herbie Flowers with dreamy acoustic guitars, harpsichord patterns and warm Fender Rhodes keys. Melancholic-romantic bossa moments meet dark soundtrack themes, Parisian sleaze and 70s space age synth sounds.
Given this atmospheric opulence, early albums by Air and Stereolab come to mind, but also Serge Gainsbourg and Jean-Claude Vannier (“Histoire de Melody Nelson”) or library music masters like Janko Nilović and Stefano Torossi. The trippy “By The River,” the last and only track with vocals, even reminds a bit of the Pink Floyd of “Obscured by Clouds” with its dragging beat.
“Discodor” is beautiful, gorgeous downtempo mood music that testifies to the suave sophistication of its creators and invites the listeners to daydream. Definitely a soundtrack album for the coming spring.
