Jelodanti Records, the experimental French label run by Clara Djian and Nicolas Leto, has released a new limited edition 2xLP compilation entitled With Love, Jelodanti. Featuring over twenty different artists from within the imprints orbit, the sprawling collection is a testament to the “micro labels” expansive network of musical connections. With its wide scope of sonic interests as well, ranging from electronic thru post-punk, the collection reveals that an experimental approach to creation lies at the heart of their intent. Additionally, as with all of the label’s output, With Love, Jelodanti. will be a limited edition vinyl release featuring hand-screened art.
Many folks from the Jelodanti ouevre make their appearance here, as well as like-minded artists connected with the label through the years. Djian and Leto have often concentrated on republishing “exhausted records,” so the compilation includes tracks from musicians like Yves Charmillot of Goz of Kermeur, Amaury Cambuzat of Ulan Bator, as well as the UK post-punk outfit The Work. Additionally, more contemporary projects from Jelodanti’s recent past like A Shape, Rose Mercie, Enfance Sauvage, Philippe Petit, and LadyBoy make an appearance on the collection as well.
Though Jelodanti’s purpose is obviously sonic in scope, their focused curation and hand-screened releases always reveal a larger aesthetic spirit at play. Often that expression is uncanny in the best of ways, like the one-off 2019 release Le Corps du Triste from a quartet of musicians operating under the name Chruch, but without any interest in further releases or playing live. On With Love, Jelodanti., that spirit of mystery is literally present right out of the gate with a visit from the beyond from now-deceased Goz of Kermeur guitarist Yves Charmillot, who passed in September of 2001.
While his track “La limace” definitely sets the stage for this collection, ultimately it is the desire to do things differently and to seek the most authentic form of expression that the label does best. Here, that might be most clearly expressed lyrically on the tracks “Usually” by Philippe Petit & Black Sifichi, as well as Darling‘s raucous celebration of all things libertine, “Perfection.” The former is anything but ordinary as a helium-laced voice explains: “That’s what I used to do usually, but I no longer do it usually.” As the phrase is worked over by the speaker its meaning begins to refract, and in convoluting, it expresses the very spirit of creative experiment at the heart of this compilation–while at the same time enacting it.
Likewise, “Perfection” sums up in a very direct way the label’s aesthetic intent, and by extension, the compilations. Darling is the project of former Goz of Kermeur, vocalist/counterbassist Adrien Kessler. With the kind of strident voice that always seems to strike directly at the heart of the matter, Kessler unleashes a vigorous diatribe punctuated by the encouraging refrain, “Time for life!” With guitar and rhythm section locked in a drunken reel capable of conflating into a full-on dumpster fire at any moment, Kessler exhorts the audience with leveling directives like “Time to kill/destroy;” but they are ultimately balanced by affirmative instructions like, “Time for dancing/flesh/pleasure.” Because, after all, as Kessler explains, “It’s perfection we motherfucking want!”
