Indieville
Not much information to be found about this "elusive French experimentalist," either online or with The Stone Tape itself. Given that there are only sixty copies of this album in existence, it seems as if Bellancourt likes making himself somewhat scarce, endowing his quiet, understated music with a sense of mystery. Hence, removed from description or context, The Stone Tape operates in its own little bubble, which is an interesting approach given that Bellancourt employs field recordings in his sound production strategy. The grainy, foreign sounds thus seem to come in from nowhere, although the track listing offers hints - after several of the compositions themselves, Bellancourt includes the source material with a short mention of where it was culled from - for example, the trickle of fountains in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic or the toasty aura of a coffee percolator in Arles, France. This 'confessional' approach shows the listener how comparatively basic sound samples can be built into greater works, as on the eerily alienating "Four Suns" or diverse epic "Monsters in Rock," which builds its climax around the sounds of a rainstorm. Abstract and often sparse, The Stone Tape is difficult to penetrate, but rewarding when explored. If, like me, you're the type who listens attentively to your surroundings for the sheer joy of exploring and examining sound, then The Stone Tape will be right up your alley.

Vital Weekly
I never heard of French composer Max Bellancourt, who produced, according to the label at least, Ôa vaguely conceptual albumÕ with ÔGlitchy textures, abstract field recordings and Jules Verne noise combineÕ Ð although I am a bit clueless what the latter should sound like, not even after hearing the disc. I can agree with the rest. The field recordings are indeed pretty abstract in a way that its not easy to hear where the find the origin. The computer takes care of the processing thereof, as well as the glitchy textures. I think I heard water sounds, the surface of sounds being picked up with contact microphones, shortwave radio and such like, and the whole thing had a nice noisy edge, without being the real noise thing and at the same time that makes this stay away from being all too microsound. I assume this rawness is intended as it is, but it bridges the world of noise and microsound quite nicely.