Under a grazing light, Frise Lumière is a personal project by artist, musician and composer Ludovic Gerst. By refining the instrumentation to only his bass, he is able to extract rythmic,harmonic and percussive melodies.
Everything comes from raw textures, a noise, a note… like a voiceless chant trying to come to life, to cast itself out of a body, out of a mouth, out of this page, this bass. Hit, stroke, hijacked, refined to only itself, this instrument becomes both melodic and rhythmic, turning into percussion, letting through other voices, other breaths…
Ambo The term ‘Ambo’ originated with the writer Maria Gabriela Llansol, who defined it as two beings that, even when together, keep their singularity, growing mutually in dialogue without canceling one other out.
"The artist takes us on a journey that is both avant-garde and minimalist. Here, we touch on music or rather techniques that are well off the beaten track. Sailing through back roads, Ludovic juggles on the strings by scratching or hitting them, to extract the maximum amount of textures. Without forgetting to specify that the sound result comes from only one instrument. An initiatory or even metaphysical journey..." JazzMania
"The composer in Gerst clearly took the lead here and what we hear is wonderfully beautiful, somewhere between jazz, minimalism and avant-garde, without sounding bombastic."Luminous Dash
"The sounds, generated in a wide variety of ways, simultaneously form backgrounds, melodies, and rhythms. A fascinating musical experience! " Jazz Fun
"A statement of intent, a technical note, is sometimes a key to understanding a work, but it will never be an end in itself for us. It is the music that decides. And this one is worth the detour, beyond mere curiosity."Esprits Critiques
" At its core, Ambo is a deeply organic album. The music feels as though it’s grown from the earth itself, with the bass acting as a conduit between the natural world and the listener." Thoughts Words Action
"The tracks take our minds on a journey and plunge us into the unique world of Ludovic Gerst‘s project. It’s impossible not to be swept away by this singular album, a blend of adventurous and experimental music. A real pleasure to listen to, where sound influences from all over the world come together for our greatest pleasure."Sounding Shivers
"The music of this atypical one-man band literally obsesses me and not two days go by without me returning to it with an avidity that surprises even me" Exit Musik
“An experimental outing that embraces broomsticks, mallets and drumsticks, Gerst blends rawness, noise and voiceless chanting into a truly atypical experience.”Take Effect
"The variations in sound and their peculiar resonances is quite extraordinary, with each track imbuing different sensations"Freq
"Frise Lumière is a solo project by composer and bassist Ludovic Gerst. Everything on the album is produced by his bass. The proposal is multifaceted but animated by an intimate coherence. Imagine acoustic Sonic Youth covering Glenn Branca. Here then is L'Écume Des Mots which seems to come from Ascension. Jeziorko and Passo De Dança are a singsong of harmonics, Le Cri Du Vent and Vibração Corporal are remote dances, P_o_ema plays with a soft jazz, Laissez Moi Encore Danser is a swinging Beckettian dance, Suor Luminoso tries to make no wave palatable with a Talking Heads-style funk and, finally, Rivière becomes nostalgic melody. Mission accomplished." Girolamo Dal MasoBlow Up Magazine | October 2024
"On ‘Ambo’ he explores new techniques nine times in a row to extract both rhythm and sound from the instrument."DaMusic
"No doubt the esoteric nature of Frise Lumière’s music will exclude the mainstream and will instead excite the arthouse aficionados into a high bitrate frenzy of deciphering those sounds into their true meaning"Bluesbunny
"Frise Lumiere is the experimental brainchild of composer Ludovic Gerst. He wielded only a bass guitar and the drumstick he beat hungrily against it. It was raw.
Perched atop a stool in almost complete darkness, conjuring up this hypnotic monosyllabic rumble, Gerst evoked the image of a wizard both in stance and sound. It was reminiscent of guttural throat singing."
Bristol | Strange Brew Epigram
"For now, we are enjoying the results of this second valuable piece of the puzzle." SoWhat
"It is understood that Frise Lumière's approach makes him a precious, niche musician. His creations, difficult to define, attract to the point of defying definition. However, to embrace them, one must be open-minded. Once this hurdle is overcome, the singularity of the work will make its mark." Muzzart
"Behind FRISE LUMIÈRE is the Frenchman Ludovic Gerst, who on "Ambo" (Tapenade) sometimes coaxes brittle chords from his bass guitar and piles them into powerful mountains, then strikes warm tones while remaining utterly minimalist. Every note is explored (literally!), every sound examined for hidden secrets. And all this in a strangely fragmented, staccato, yet organic form."Westzeist
Interview + Exclusive video premiere of ‘Jeziorko’ by Frise Lumière Psychedelic Baby Mag
"Imagine if Metallica's late, great bassist Cliff Burton had read Schopenhauer then you'd have something approaching Frise Lumière (aka Ludovic Gerst). I never realised that the bass guitar could be utilised in such a creative way as he performs all sorts of fretboard fireworks, operating at the bottom end to give his playing real depth and punch, and 'Vibração Corporal' perfectly replicates the sound of a thousand stampeding horses.
Capturing the sound of his native Portugal on 'Suor Luminoso', it becomes a kind of folk music, only played on bass guitar.
Then he lays the bass flat on his lap and attacks the strings with Mallets (that's the type of drum stick, not actual mallets, obviously). For far too long the bass guitar has been hidden away in popular music, often getting lost in the general melee (and The Doors even dispensed with a bassist), but Lumière's performance puts the bass centre stage, and long overdue it is too.
Birminghan | Pan Pan 12/11/2024Pulse-Alternative Magazine
"French musician Ludovic Gerst makes do with a solo bass guitar in his work. Despite this conceptual limitation, his music does not seem impoverished, but rather focused..."Full Moon
Sometimes it sounds just like a gamelan instrument, or at least some curious oriental percussion with strings, as you can hear in “Passo de Dança”MusicMap
"Anche le qualità dal vivo dei due giovani musicisti, artisti che mi sembrano già oltre la media a livello di conoscenze ed espansione della progettazione musicale"Percorsi Musicali
"Une sorte de climat d'automne s'instaure, mélancolique certes mais aussi très pop expérimentale grâce à l'utilisation d'effets issus d'on ne sait quel pédale électronique. Des ambiances cold et de feuilles mortes rendent le disque très attachant et très touchant. Cet état d'esprit molletonneux et fragile s'étale sur tout ce deuxième disque de FRISE LUMIÈRE"STNT
"Frise Lumière frôle aussi les frontières de la musique expérimentale, de la beauté du son pour le son. D’où la puissance rythmique du math rock et la richesse des couleurs sonores de l’expérimental. On est bien dans un entre-deux assez prodigieux qui prend toute sa dimension sur scène car le tritureur de basse et de matériel, dans l’inconfort et la magie de l’instant, éclipse presque le compositeur.
Frise Lumière, c’est à la fois la musique du passé et celle de l’avenir"POPnews
"Abscondre | Ce titre, aliénant, est d’une force tellurique et ressemble à une mauvaise fièvre, contractée dans un pays moyen-oriental, qui ne nous lâcherait plus et qui pourrait symboliser la guerre, les errances des hommes. Puissant."Litzic
"C'est un disque unique et en cela, il te pousse dans tes derniers retranchements, t’oblige à déployer des trésors d’assimilation pour, par ses textures et climats, t’emprisonner après avoir balourdé la clef de ta geôle."Muzzart
"Composé de neuf titres, Frise Lumière puise son inspiration auprès des matières brutes et dépouillées. À la croisée de la noise et de la musique expérimentale, l’univers arty du musicien arrive à nous enivrer et nous glacer le sang à chaque fois."Les Oreilles Curieuses
"La basse de Gerst déploie alors toute sa puissance évocatrice, sa capacité à faire naître des représentations mentales à partir de très peu.
C’est l’une des grandes forces de ce projet. De par leur forme même, leur structure et l’épure qui les caractérise, certaines pièces évoquent des haïkus musicaux."Litzic
"Bisou Genou est d’abord assez absorbante, l’inventivité et le climat sombrement et âprement poétique qui vont avec aussi. Sur la longueur, cette même austérité et l’effet très répétitif de certains morceaux finissent par vous rattraper et user la corde qui s’avère tendue dès le début mais franchement, vous avez matière à être interpeller et l’expérience vaut le déplacement."Perte & Fracas
"Il pousse la recherche à son paroxysme, éclairage, intimiste et mystique. Ce n'est que lui au centre de la pièce. La basse devient tout à coup percussion, caisse de résonance. Tantôt caressée, elle n'est que le prolongement de son corps..."La Face B
"Un album où le minimalisme de la musique fait se heurter, dans un fracas paradoxal, tendresse et violence."
"A la faveur d’un remarquable travail sur le son, organique et brut, l’artiste convie l’auditoire à un voyage introspectif aux confins de contrées intrigantes. Qu’elle soit nette ou évanescente, chaque mesure semble en tout temps s’élancer à corps perdu dans une fuite en avant."Totoromoon
"Une expérimentation remarquablement poétique. Aussi satinée que sauvage. Ce Bisou Genou est un indescriptible. Il se vit, se ressent. Les notes rebondissent, volent, se brisent sur la basse. Hypnotisant, parfois dérangeant, il vous pousse dans vos retranchements. Une introspection importante et nécessaire. Nuancée, subtile. Ce premier disque ne laisse clairement pas indifférent."Rock Ur Life
