Chanson Cachée: The Music-comic albums of Geneviève Castrée

This article will examine two comic and vinyl record releases by Geneviève Castrée – Pamplemoussi published by L’Oie de Cravan in 2004 and Tout Seul Dans La Forêt En Plein Jour, Avez-vous Peur?, which was released under the name Woelv by K Records in 2007. Each release consists of a 30cm square comic book with an accompanying 12” vinyl record. On each record there are songs corresponding to the stories in the books.

L’Oie de Cravan is a publishing house based in Montreal, which specialises in poetry but has also published comics and cartoons by artists such as Julie Doucet, as well the writing of musicians such as Mike Watt. K Records is an independent record label based in Olympia, Washington. In a 2013 article in Art Documentation: Journal of the Art Libraries Society of North America, Susan E. Thomas categorized Pamplemoussi as an Artists’ Recordwork. The term Artists’ Recordwork, was popularised by Ursula Block and Michael Glasmeier in their book Broken Music: Artists’ Recordworks (1989).

Pamplemoussi was a limited edition of 800 with a screenprinted cover on the comic and Tout Seul Dans La Forêt En Plein Jour, Avez-vous Peur? was an unlimited edition (it is still in print) with a colour comic printed using 4-colour offset lithography. While both of Castrée’s works can be considered Artists’ Recordworks, the production, materiality, and distribution of each differs – Pamplemoussi is a comic with record and Tout… seems to be a record with comic. Castrée also stated that when she wanted to make music for her comic Pamplemoussi, she had to teach herself “how to make notes with the guitar, just to figure out a way to write songs and find a way to make some sounds come out of a guitar as I was singing them” (2013). This article will look at the shift in cultural position of each work based on an examination these factors. It will also position and compare Castrée’s work within the cultural history of comic/music combinations, including works such as Flash Fearless Vs. the Zorg Women, Pts. 5 & 6 (1975) – a compilation album and comic featuring various musicians including Alice Cooper – and Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron (1993), a “soundtrack” to Daniel Clowes comic by cartoonist Tim Hensley under the name Victor Banana, as well as current comics and sound creators such as Miranda Smart.

This article will then use these discussion alongside a close analysis of Pamplemoussi and Tout Seul Dans La Forêt En Plein Jour, Avez-vous Peur? to answer the questions:

Accompaniment, paratext, autonomous work. What is the degree of autonomy of the soundtrack as a work?
What is the relationship between the temporality of the sound recording (homochrony) and that of the graphic narrative (heterochrony)?
In its relation to fiction, does the content of the soundtrack have a diegetic or extra-diegetic status?
In terms of the reception experience, does the addition of sound have an effect on fictional immersion?