CD | Sonic Advent Calendar 2025 - Limited edition boxset - 24cdr's | taâlem (Be)
The latest musical advent calendar box set released by the taâlem label offered, for December 2025, an immersive experience made up of 24 mystery mini‑CDs, including a tribute disc to Philippe Franck featuring three previously unreleased tracks from his Paradise Now project.
Each day of December, the box set owners were invited to discover a different mini‑CD selected from an international group of artists representative of the ambient, drone and experimental aesthetics upheld by the label.
This physical edition was limited to 60 numbered copies, presented in a small wooden box with hot‑foil stamping on the lid and including an insert with download codes. Only 35 copies are available for sale.
- Jour 1 – PHOLDE – to limit the possession
- Jour 2 – HIROTAKA SHIROTSUBAKI – winter holiday at isogami park
- Jour 3 – ELLENDE – in life, it’s not the future that counts but the past
- Jour 4 – JAMES P. KEELER – cherry blossoms
- Jour 5 – PLEQ – nullspace
- Jour 6 – ARASH AKBARI – where stones once lived
- Jour 7 – SONOMONO – 20231231-20240101-marolles
- Jour 8 – ILLUSION OF SAFETY – lessons learned the hard way
- Jour 9 – TOMONARI NOZAKI – blue interlude
- Jour 10 – SVÆR – growth
- Jour 11 – EXTRA – lather/either
- Jour 12 – SEKI TAKASHI – under the weather / it’s been a long time
- Jour 13 – THE [LAW – RAH] COLLECTIVE – caught in the vacuum of a forgotten past Jour 14 – SIMON WHETHAM – channeling reduction 01
- Jour 15 – MATHIEU RUHLMANN – the left hand of edvard munch is the right hand of god Jour 16 – MURMER – slow turn towards
- Jour 17 – CHRISTOPHER MCFALL – a low tide slender for my tiffany grey
- Jour 18 – STEPHANE KOZIK – time stop machine
- Jour 19 – SAMUEL ANDRÉ AKA IEVA – 京の夏
- Jour 20 – MICHAEL NORTHAM – cosmic rainfall
- Jour 21 – PARADISE NOW – paradise is not here
- Jour 22 – MICHIRU AOYAMA – 瞑瞑
- Jour 23 – A.F. JONES – endymion
- Jour 24 – TARKATAK – tating
taâlem
The taâlem label was founded by Jean‑Marc Boucher, an active presence in the experimental music scene since the early 1990s. In 1992, he co-launched several fanzines focused first on cold-wave and indie-pop, then gradually shifting toward more experimental sonic territories. This led to the creation of the Harmonie label in 1993, whose initial output included cassette releases and a CD compilation.
A first version of taâlem emerged in 1999, but it was officially relaunched in 2001 with a new focus: exploring the many facets of ambient, drone, and field recordings through a series of 3″ mini‑CDs. Between 2001 and 2021, taâlem released 143 titles, featuring artists such as Aube, Daniel Menche, Voice of Eye, Celer, and Désaccord Majeur, among others from the international experimental sound community. After a pause, the label resumed activity in late 2023, this time with standard CD releases while maintaining its distinctive artistic direction.
Alongside its main catalog, taâlem has produced an annual digital compilation since 2016 titled “homework,” released on a pay-what-you-want basis. These compilations bring together unreleased material from dozens of label-affiliated artists. This spirit of sharing and showcasing rare works eventually gave rise to the musical advent calendar—a project that merges the depth of the taâlem catalog with the daily surprise format of mini‑CD releases.
Other editorial projects
- Launched in 2008, Lucioléditions is a taâlem sublabel dedicated to the occasional release of full-length albums (on CD or CDR) featuring previously unreleased material, unlike Kokeshidisk. The releases come in slim transparent DVD cases with full-color artwork. The catalog includes, for example, *Tribute to Hastia* by Internal Fusion, marking a shift toward darker and more minimal soundscapes.
- Kokeshidisk, active since 2005, focuses on rare reissues and compilations of ambient, drone, or experimental works, often by artists already linked to taâlem (e.g., Aidan Baker, Akifumi Nakajima/Aube, Téléphérique, Toy.Bizarre). The releases are carefully designed and occasionally come as limited editions with exclusive bonus material.
Jean‑Marc Boucher (Be)
Figure très discrète mais constante des musiques expérimentales et ambient depuis le début des années 1990, Jean‑Marc Boucher commence par coéditer plusieurs fanzines (Remèdes Désespérés, Nouvelles Harmonies, =Ellipse=) qui documentent une scène musicale allant de la cold-wave à l’expérimental (publiant une série de cassettes et une compilation CD réunissant des artistes comme Shinjuku Thief, Klimperei,Black Lung…).
En 1993, il fonde le label Harmonie, actif jusqu’en 1998, avec des sorties cassette et une compilation CD (ahimsâ) réunissant des artistes internationaux. Après une première tentative en 1999, il lance véritablement en 2001 le label taâlem structuré autour d’un format singulier : le mini‑CD 3″. Ce support atypique devient le vecteur d’une ligne éditoriale exigeante, tournée vers les formes ambient, drone, minimalistes ou issues de l’art sonore, avec plus de 140 références publiées jusqu’en 2021, incluant des artistes comme Aube, Daniel Menche, Celer, Voice of Eye, Désaccord Majeur…
Sa démarche curatoriale s’ancre dans une logique de diffusion marginale, transversale, en dehors des circuits commerciaux, en privilégiant les œuvres rares, inédites ou inclassables. Depuis 2016, il initie la série annuelle homework, compilation numérique à prix libre réunissant 60 à 70 artistes chaque Noël, avant d’imaginer en 2019 un calendrier de l’avent musical mettant en lumière chaque jour une ancienne sortie du label. En 2023, le concept évolue en coffret physique de 24 mini-CD inédits, renforçant le lien entre l’écoute et l’objet.
Il intervient ponctuellement dans des événement (comme pour le festivals comme City Sonic en 2015), où il défend la philosophie artisanale de taâlem : créer un espace autonome, international, pour deA quiet yet consistent figure in the experimental and ambient music scene since the early 1990s, Jean‑Marc Boucher began by co-editing several fanzines (*Remèdes Désespérés*, *Nouvelles Harmonies*, *=Ellipse=*) that documented a musical spectrum ranging from cold-wave to experimental sounds, while also releasing a series of cassette tapes and a CD compilation featuring artists such as Shinjuku Thief, Klimperei, and Black Lung.
In 1993, he founded the Harmonie label, which remained active until 1998, issuing cassette releases and the *ahimsâ* CD compilation with contributions from various international artists. After an initial attempt in 1999, he officially launched taâlem in 2001, structured around a distinctive format: the 3″ mini‑CD. This unusual medium became the backbone of a rigorous editorial line focused on ambient, drone, minimal, and sound art forms, resulting in over 140 releases by 2021, including works by Aube, Daniel Menche, Celer, Voice of Eye, and Désaccord Majeur.
His curatorial approach emphasizes marginal and cross-disciplinary distribution, deliberately outside mainstream commercial circuits, giving space to rare, previously unreleased, or hard-to-classify works. Since 2016, he has overseen the annual *homework* compilation, a pay-what-you-want digital release gathering 60 to 70 taâlem artists each December. In 2019, this spirit of sharing evolved into a musical advent calendar, highlighting one archival release per day; by 2023, the concept took physical form as a wooden box set of 24 previously unreleased mini‑CDs, reinforcing the connection between listening and the material object.
Boucher has occasionally participated in events such as the 2015 City Sonic festival, where he presented taâlem’s artisanal ethos: establishing an autonomous, international platform for unformatted music, navigating between sonic exploration, underground memory, and focused listening.
s musiques non formatées, entre exploration sonore, mémoire souterraine et intensité d’écoute.
paradise is not here (taâlem advent calendar 2025 - day 21)
- Glittering houses : Paradise Now and A Limb > electronics
- Abidjan Groove remix : Paradise Now and A Limb > electronics
- Tabula/Deus etc (part 2) : Music for a visual installation ‘Tabula’ by Jean-François Octave – Collégiale de Soignies (Belgium) – Summer 2021 in the framework of the Biennale of contemporary ARTour – supported by Gallery Koma, Central and Transcultures
- Paradise Now > electronic treatments, vocals, sampling, synth
- A Limb > synth
- All songs edited and remixed by A Limb
- Heartfelt thanks to Isa*Belle Vrammout, Jacques Urbanska and Philippe Franck, wherever he is.
> released on December 21, 2025 – mastered by Flavien Gillié – almbox 5‑21
Philippe Franck (Fr/Be)
Under the name Paradise Now, Philippe Franck developed, from the early 1990s onward, a multifaceted artistic trajectory shaped by a forward-looking approach and a strong collaborative ethos. He composed and produced music for choreographic works, exhibitions, interdisciplinary performances and videos (notably for Régis Cotentin, Hanzel & Gretzel and Thomas Israël), as well as multimedia pieces in collaboration with digital artists Philippe Boisnard, Marc Veyrat and art2.network.
In 2014, Philippe Franck co-directed the film Bernard Heidsieck, la poésie en action, which was also released as a book-and-DVD box set titled Variations sur Bernard Heidsieck.
Alongside his collaborations with holistic performer Isa*Belle (several body/sound installations and performances since 2005), Paradise Now also worked with electronic musicians Christophe Bailleau (as part of the duo Pastoral), Gauthier Keyaerts (within Supernova), Stephan Dunkelman, Christian Leroy, Didié Nietzsche, and vocalist/performer Maja Jantar, as well as with several poets including Ira Cohen, Gerard Malanga, Werner Moron, Eric Therer, Catrine Godin and Habiba Sheikh. From 2021, he was part of the hypermedia collective Société i Matériel, where he was responsible for the sound and poetic dimension.
His recordings were released on labels including Transonic, Optical Sound and Sub Rosa. Philippe Franck
Informations
- 11.11.2025
- taâlem – Jean-Marc Boucher
- sold-out
- taalem.bandcamp.com
Production
- taâlem label
- paradise is not here > with the support of Transcultures, Transonic Label
