Uman, pronounced (YOO-mahn), was a unique group. Vacillating from many visions — world music, ambient, jazz, and many uncategorizable things — this French sibling duo has never been a group to easily pigeonhole. Chaleur Humaine, their debut, I think, is a perfectly birthed idea of what they can do. Chaleur Humaine exists in that gray territory where real and unreal sounds mingle. Originally released in 1992, it’s no wonder few record labels could truly understand what to do with them.
Uman points to the works of the Cocteau Twins and Enya for their unique sound. It’s not hard to notice why. You hear it in the truly gifted use of sampling technology and warped sense of vocal phrasing present in their music. You hear it in the deliberately mercurial styles they waft through on their debut. No one track sounds like the other. No one sonic imprint stays long enough to make it the signature of this album. They’re French by birth, but the duo of Danielle Jean (vocals) and Didier Jean (keyboard) arrive at a lot of their sound by musical exploration outside continental Europe. Atmospheric Pop seems to be their calling card.
Uman, was a band name inspired by the word “umane” meaning “powerful earth forces” in some Native American culture, somehow, found its way into the mind of Didier. Didier owns up to being an autodidact. Before he began Uman he would capture field recordings, amassing a huge sample library from which to draw from, and had worked his way through as both a sculptor and a jazz musician. His girlfriend, Zad, would help paint the album covers (like the one above) and work together with him to create illustrated children’s books.
Danielle felt most inspired when Didier would create beautiful melodies for her to improvise over. Both seem enamored in venturing outside their own language and draw from Arabic melodies to explore all sorts of experimental musical ideas Didier would come up with. Chaleur Humaine still sounds quite progressive simply because they seem uncaring about any prevailing trend. They seem to understand the power of translating, still quite contemporary, music technology into some very human feeling.
Buda Musique, the French record label most widely known for its Ethiopiques series and brilliant world music releases, must have wondered what they stumble onto when the siblings showed up fully formed with the demo of this album. Chaleur Humaine was recorded completely in Uman’s own home studio, using similar tools like Ensoniq’s samplers heard in the music of Nuno Canavarro. Akai grooveboxes were retooled from their hip-hop roots for other purposes. Somewhere, in their old site, they name-checked the music of Mark Isham, Tim Story, Giovanni Venosta, Wally Badarou, and Milton Nascimento (to name precious few) as some of the company they’d like to be filed under.
Not for nothing, I will refrain from describing the tracks music of Chaleur Humaine. The closest analog I can think of is to relate it to the Italian post-modernist music of Francesco Messina, Daniel Bacalov, or Mr. Venosta’s himself, where the music itself is a partner to a bigger picture (perhaps one that’s more artful as something more than music).
Chaleur Humaine is special, in a way that I still can’t quite pinpoint. On stage, they’d perform with sculptors, choreographers, and painters, all doing their thing to their thing. There was no viral, woke, pseudo zeitgeist-ty thing to use to promote. At the beginning, they were just two seriously talented performers who had the means to extend themselves further by not serving one master. Now if someone could bother themselves to repress this long out of print masterwork.
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