Quelque peu obsédé par les musiques médiévales et polyphoniques, le musicien solo Might Brank (qui est en réalité le batteur Emmanuel Scarpa). De l’utilisation du canon (c’est à dire on reprend le même motif qui se superpose au premier, avec comme exemple ludique « Frère jacques ») à la répétition percussive, il se trame donc d’étranges « Manœuvres orchestrales dans le noir ». Une étrangeté à laquelle on s’habitue progressivement, comme le quasi monacal « La harpe ». Vous reprendrez bien une petite retraite sonore introspective ?

In navolging van zijn vorige album Before Zero Crossing keert trompettist en componist Timothée Quost terug met een nieuw album waarin hij een geluidsdocumentaire en instrumentale composities combineert.

Flatten the Curve is een album dat een zoektocht naar vreemdheid en ontdekking nastreeft. We horen vijf muziekstukken die de afgelopen jaren geschreven werden en een geluidsdocumentaire waarin we stemmen horen die zijn opgenomen in verzorgingstehuizen.

Toen Timothée Quost in 2020 besloot zijn composities op te nemen, begon het idee te spelen om de opnames te kruisen met de opnames die hij met ouderlingen maakte. Dit gebeurde met de hulp van dirigent en artistiek directeur Léo Margue, en Julien Podolak en Paul Alkhallaf voor de geluidsopname, de mixing en de artistieke leiding. Pierre Juillard, tevens botanicus, geluidsopnemer en componist van elektronische muziek, produceerde de geluidscollages met de woorden van de geïnterviewden.

Voor de componist is het doel een deel van de bevolking te ontmoeten dat niet meer voldoende aanwezig is in het dagelijks leven en hen, door de productie van een plaat, een uitdrukkingsruimte te geven zodat zij hun stem kunnen laten horen. Onze ouderen spreken, geven commentaar, vertellen over hun leven evenveel als zij over het onze vertellen. Het voordeel van een afstand en een verhouding tot de tijd die alleen de leeftijd schijnt toe te laten. Zij leveren ons aan het begin van onschuldige zinnen schatten van hun leven, einde van zinnen of lege woorden die aan niemands oren worden toegeworpen: een back to basics.

De vijf muziekstukken bevatten een stuk kamermuziek gecomponeerd in Slovenië ten tijde van een eenzame retraite. Een 15 minuten durend stuk voor groot ensemble, waarvan de variaties zijn gebouwd op een permanente spanning en drie korte stukken geschreven voor het Liken ensemble.

Wat op het eerste gezicht een verzameling van verspreide projecten en ideeën lijkt, gesprokkeld in de loop van de tijd, blijkt een samenhangend geheel met een boodschap te zijn.

Toegegeven, bij de eerste beluistering van deze plaat bevonden we ons toch ver buiten onze comfortzone. Maar iets in ons zorgde ervoor dat we het album toch een paar luisterbeurten gaven en het uiteindelijk toch konden appreciëren. Het idee van deze plaat heeft niet alleen een nobel doel maar is vernieuwend.

(Carton Records / Insub Records)

Gleich von der ersten Sekunde macht diese CD klar, dass sie sich an Avantgarde-geschulte Ohren wendet. Vor einem nervös pfeifenden Sirren werden flatternde TrompetenLaute durch die Kanäle geschleift, die nur schwer als solche zu deuten sind, aber das Stück mit dem schönen Namen "Franzform" schon mal zu einem wirklich beeindruckenden opener machen – kurz vor Schluß hat man dann sogar kurz Angst, der CD-Laser hätte sich aufhangen. Laurain beschreitet den so gewiesenen Weg konsequent weiter. "Rhypnotic" ist im SoundDesign zwar gedämpfter, aber der Franzose traktiert Mundstück und Ventilmaschine seiner Trompete auch hier auf so unorthodoxe wie faszinierende Weise. Wieder werden Schleifen gebunden und aufgelöst, loops geknüpft und zerrissen – schnell entsteht ein hypnotischer Strudel aus selten (so) gehörten Klängen. Später verbinden sich in der Musik unbefleckte Sinuswellen aus dem Generator mit solchen aus dem TrompetenTrichter zu wundersamen Resonanzen, auch einige in field recordings freudig zwitschernde Vogelstimmen werden verbaut – der Klang bleibt dabei aber stets frei, im besten Sinne fremd und irgendwie auch fröhlich. In Berlin spielt Laurain ab und an mit Pierre Borel, Hannes Lingens und Antonio Borghini als "Die Hochstapler" – ein solcher ist er im wirklichen (Musik)Leben aber keineswegs. 5

Weitere Infos: › www.louis-laurain.com

Trublion du collectif Coax, entendu chez Electric Vocuhila, Parquet et plus récemment avec Julien Desprez sur le projet Abacaxi, le bassiste Jean-François Riffaud livre ici le fruit de ses réflexions musicales. Il voyage en solitaire, avec une guitare électrique et quelques effets personnels pour seule compagnie. Dès les premières notes, Rifo (puisque c’est son pseudo) nous embarque dans sa transe minimale et déglinguée. Le vertige nous surprend alors, casque aux oreilles, à l’écoute de cette subtile mécanique de la répétition. Rifo y sculpte d’infimes variations qui permettent à l’auditeur de suivre ses pérégrinations sans jamais perdre le fil du récit. Une belle réussite.

Betel est la 19è référence de la série Croix-Croix du label Carton Records dont on avait récemment apprécié le solo de Seb Brun Ar Ker.

C’est un disque court, à peine une demi-heure. Pourtant, sa brièveté ne dérange et ne déroute pas. Elle apparaît au contraire comme une durée idéale à une démarche qui relève davantage de la jubilation et de la fulgurance qu’à l’exercice de composition. Emilie Škrijelj délaisse ici son accordéon et s’installe derrière une platine à vinyle à laquelle elle a joint divers appareils électroniques. Pour sa part, Tom Malmendier reste fidèle à sa batterie qu’il agrémente d’objets divers. Le dialogue qu’ils instaurent dépasse la simple collaboration complice, il tend vers l’osmose. Un sorte d’unisson de sons bigarrés qui couinent, grincent, vagissent, piaulent, piaillent. L’autre soir encore, la paire Malmendier / Škrijelj, qui avait rejoint pour l’occasion l’iconoclaste Pavel Tchikov dans un jardin privé liégeois, démontrait avec brio l’intrigante connivence qui est la leur. Enregistré aux Pays-Bas il y a deux ans et fraîchement réalisé sur l’aventureux label français Carton Records, « Tropism » est leur deuxième album après « Les Marquises ».

Probing the immensity of percussion textures is Belgian drummer Tom Malmendier in these duets, propelling resonances that range from the unexpected to the unforeseen. Cordially stroking parts of a regular kit on Vanguard, he’s paired with another unconventional player Belgian guitarist Dirk Serries. Providing a boost to abstraction on Tropism, Malmendier uses drums and objects to match pulsations from French turntable and electronics player Émilie Škrijelj.

In musical intercourse with Škrijelj, Malmendier’s usual partner, on the other disc her synthesized collection of judders, buzzes, whistles and glitch vibrations cause the percussionist to respond with fragmented rhythms and emphasize twisting and pummeling. These reflex reactions are given the most space to evolve organically on “Patoko Mata”, which at 20 minutes is twice as long as the other two tracks combined. Besides the rugged plops and frenetic beats, in response to Škrijelj’s pennywhistle-like shrills, percussion vibrates timbres that sound like slapping on plastic bottles. As backwards-running tape-flanges that include sped up voices create a section demarcation, the partners reverse roles. Now it’s his paradiddles that are light and understated with her harsh turntable rubs and screeches creating a percussive bottom. Eventually power pumps and cries give way to samples of squealing multi-tracked voices that yowl and yodel beside subtle drum rotation, finally giving way to a concluding drum pop and electronic squeak.

Not what many would imagine when confronted by percussion duos, there are many unexpected and surprisingly positioned textures to be heard on these CDs.

There are noises. Many noises. Noises that are subsumed into other noises. Noises that undermine. Noises that accent or resonate. Noises that create harmonics or dissonances with themselves. Filtered noises, rhythmic noises. Obvious noises. Found noises. Noises that surprise or disturb. Noises that welcome. Noises that attract and repel. Loud noises, quiet noises and noises that disrespect the silences or enhance them.

Sitting between a laboratory and a plant room where secret chemicals are made, listening to the process, the agitation, the percolations, leakages and reactive bubblings and whistlings. Filters are eaten up by otherly filters and those filters in turn are consumed by their own echoes and filtered of course.

Arecibo excitedly thinks it finds another distant lifeform but eventually calms itself when realising it is only hearing an ancient historical interpretation of its own messaging system in reverse.

These are the components of this work. It’s a vision of post-industrial pharma dripping dollars into shareholder’s dividend troughs.

If all of the above tick your boxes then dive right in.

Visual artist and sound sculptor Jean Francois Riffaud has taken his RIFO alter ego on a guitar odyssey hanging primarily on tonal repetition and hypnotic rhythmic interaction. Running through five inter-related pieces that spur one another on like an enthusiastic relay team, the guitar on Betel is treated with anything but reverence and at times is barely recognisable.

The utterly basic hypnotic rhythm that prepares us for departure is like a slow helicopter with just the hint of a sparkle in the background. It runs wit the very basest of instincts and move slightly in and out of phase. His idea of a sound sculpture is assimilated here, something monolithic and simple but that has the illusion of movement, drawing closer and changing position.

At points the guitar sends reminders to you of its general structure and form, a primitive, distorted sensation that speaks of decay and antiquity. As things move on, so it becomes less incantatory and silence blossoms between the notes. Having drawn you in, it now settles you down, but its ghostliness begins to lose form and grows more static, more deliberate; a loop of awkward, blunt notes that disorientate the listener surrounding them with what sounds like a previously undiscovered frog chorus, intensely alive but hidden.

Offset metronomes spring to mind at points, but as an aural sculpture it is in constant motion with its simplicity of form belying its ability to draw you in. Sounds diverge each time and you think you are ready for the next logical step, but often there is harsh juxtaposition that surprises. Strings bark like dogs or a saw deep in the forest; rather unwelcoming, changing the mood for something darker and leaving a long distance travelled from the simple opening.

A didgeridoo-like sound descends into the abyss as feedback grows distant moving into the final coda which is strangely sparse and utterly unrecognisable from the setting off point. The violin-like comedown melancholy that drops you off at the end after the intense burst of hyperactivity preceding it is a bit of a balm that leaves you feeling a little more prepared for re-immersion into life.

If you are looking for a guitar album that is unlike any other, Betel could be for you. One musician’s idiosyncratic approach makes for something immersive and quite daring.

Et si le meilleur moyen de deviner ce qu’on entendra sur un album inconnu était d’en connaître le label. On a découvert il y a peu Carton Records et le point commun entre tous ces artistes (RIFO, Abacaxi, Gilles Poizat, Sebastien Brun) est une exigence et un goût de l’exploration jamais démenti.

Il n’est pas inutile de commencer par une petite description du procédé. La base du travail de Louis Laurain, ce sont des trompettes, utilisées comme instrument (sisi) mais aussi modifiées et utilisées pour leurs propriétés de résonance et cette matière est amplement retravaillée.. Mais ceci n’est pas une expérience, c’est un album.

On est clairement dans ce qu’on appelle parfois la musique concrète. Pourtant, ce sont de ‘vrais’ morceaux, avec des textures, des variations. Pour une fois, le titre de l’album donne une une idée du contenu Si Satellites for Nawel fait appel à des sons plus grinçants, il arrive à injecter suffisamment de musicalité pour qu’on continue à le suivre. La plus éthérée plage titulaire apporte un équilibre bienvenu à un album aventureux et lisible.

9/10

The sophomore album from the electric duo of Tom Malmendier and Emilie Škrijelj, Tropism brings drums, objects, a turntable and electronica to 3 very adventurous avante-garde compositions.

“Patoka Mata” starts the listen with unpredictable drumming from Malmendier as screeching, jagged electronica enters the very unusual but highly interesting climate that spends 20 minutes mesmerizing us.

“Pua Pill” occupies the middle spot, and recruits lively percussion alongside a tense and very eccentric form of droning that’s artistic, iconoclastic, and defies any sort of easy classification.

The final track, “Kipo Kipo”, is the best, and displays furious drumming amid light buzzing and dancing electronics. Bridging a tribal spirit with a futuristic quality, at just over 4 minutes the track ends entirely too soon.

Certainly an unclassifiable listen, calling this experimental might be an understatement, as noisey bouts, creative improvising and a highly meticulous attention to detail leave the listener in awe of this exciting performance.

Carton Records and Coax Records have jointly released Betel by French musician JF Riffaud, also known as RIFO. The album draws on the music of sub-Saharan Africa such as that of Sunny Ade or Flamme Kapaya as much as being influenced by American primitivists and minimalists from John Fahey to Tony Conrad via Morton Subotnick.

Of the album, RIFO says:

BETEL is a chewing plant in south-east Asia, and also the name of a sanctuary of Jacob in Israel. Starting from the repetition of a declined gesture, taken in games of rebounds and filtered by transistors, spaces confront each other in a sequence of raw and concrete organic materials, sometimes figurative. Like a very old mechanical, pneumatic, pre-synthetic music.

A solo number for guitar and tape echo, “Smile” is taken from the album, released on digital platforms in June, and will be followed by a vinyl edition in autumn 2021. An hypnotic video using glitched photographs and cyanotypes, directed and edited by Ramataupia, is premiered here:

Louis Laurain: no conventional sound

Trombettista e compositore, Louis Laurain vanta un curriculum di tutto rispettoavendo calcato i palchi di tutto il mondo a suon d’improvvisazione con la sua tromba e collaborando con nomi prestigiosi del calibro di Stephen O’Malley.

Pulses, Pipes, Patterns è il suo ultimo lavoro discograco pubblicato il 25 giugno 2021 da Carton Records / INSUB Records. Munito di tre trombe, laptop, un sistema di amplicazione fatto in casa e vari oggetti, il musicista francese trasforma il suono degli ottoni in rumore bianco, suoni vibranti e onde sinusoidali dando lustro al suo modo personale di suonare e pensare alla musica.

Nella prima traccia, Franzform, Laurain trasforma il suono degli ottoni in un effetto ritmico incessante ottenuto utilizzando una coppia di trombe usate come un PA stereo. Ne scaturisce una traccia dal suono metallico vibrante molto insolito e disturbante.

Segue Rhypnoptic costruita attraverso i ritorni e i feedback del mixer al ne di dare forma a un pattern poliritmico ipnotico e suggestivo. Il risultato è una composizione elettroacustica vivace che va ad analizzare il suono primordiale dando lustro alla parte più tribale del sound di Laurain. In Satellites For Nawel il compositore manipola il feedback dello strumento giocando con i toni e le distorsioni. Ne viene fuori una composizione basata su stridori e dissonanze per un usso narrativo dal lessico inusuale.

La title track è la somma degli elementi delle tracce precedenti che vanno a comporre una trama inquieta di musica concreta dall’atmosfera inquietante, rarefatta e carica di tensione.Pulses, Pipes, Patterns si chiude con la più imprevedibile delle cinque tracce: 90’s è una composizione fuori dagli schemi con la tromba che si trasforma in uno strumento a percussione. Il pattern ltrato nel mixer subisce un’alterazione del tono in modo da creare un drumming provvisorio.

Pulses, Pipes, Patterns è un lavoro che vede le trombe utilizzate in maniera non convenzionale per dar vita ad un album originale per un’esperienza d’ascolto unica nel suo genere.

I met Luis Laurain when he played with the band Lumpeks in St. John’s Church in Gdańsk. He made excellent use of the acoustics of the space in the back nave of the church, which made quite an impression on me. Back then he moved in the idiom of jazz music, but on Pulses, Pipes, Patterns his trumpet stands as far as possible from what the conventional sound of this instrument can be associated with. Laurain prepares the instrument, focuses on details (“Franzform”), sometimes samples it, looping it into the title patterns (“Rhypnotic”), he explores the resonance of the trumpet’s afterimages (“Satellites for Nawel”), or turns it into percussion (“90′”). Some of the sounds are played live, some are pre-created, they are amplified, mixed with the sounds of air, rattling jams and metallic reverberations. At times Laurain reminds me of another trumpeter, Mazen Kerbaj, who also vivisects his instrument. While Kerbaj focuses on acoustic explorations, Laurain takes the possibilities of his trumpet as the starting point and develops them by means of electrification, stretching the sound and looping ornaments. The result is an album that shines with many colours, showing the trumpet from a completely different perspective.

L’esperienza iniziatica di Rifo

Torniamo a parlare su queste pagine del musicista Jean-François Riffaud già incontrato in occasione della recensione degli Abacaxi nei quali il francese è impegnato al basso. Con un passato dedicato a installazioni e performance artistiche, Riffaud calca da dieci anni i palchi di tutta europea con le sue band Syntax Error, Electric Vocuhila, Parquet e The World no alla nascita del suo progetto solista Rifo.

Il 25 giugno 2021 è uscito per Carton Records, Betel, Ep di cinque tracce con Jean- François Riffaud impegnato tramite l’uso di chitarra elettrica, nastro magnetico ed echo nella realizzazione del suo manifesto artistico che sintetizza il modo “plastico” di intendere l’atto musicale.

La chitarra cambia aspetto venendo ltrata o modulata come nel caso della prima traccia, la lunga suite Leaf, nella quale le ripetizioni diventano la parte ritmica del brano. Il grattato della chitarra si scompone formando due linee sonore differenti

di cui una va a formare un drone di fondo mentre l’altra linea contribuisce alla scultura sonora grazie ad un gioco di rimbalzi. Suoni metallici e atonali vanno a formare un tappeto sonoro impervio e cacofonico no alla coda nale che si tramuta in un crescendo di oscillazioni industriali.

In Nut il suono si dilata, viene allungato e ltrato al ne di farne diventare un tappeto sonoro dalla materia organica e gurativa. Un continuo incedere magmatico tra feedback e rumori di fondo si evolve in un vortice sintetico con un nale ossessivo e ipnotico.

Betel si conclude sulle note morbide di Smile, un uttuare leggero di una chitarra che risuona come un violino per una narrazione poetica e sognante che ben si differenzia dalle prime tracce.

Partendo dalla ripetizione Jean-François Riffaud realizza un’esperienza iniziatica a dir poco sorprendente:la metamorfosi della chitarra in Betel lascia a bocca aperta, un processo che la rende quasi irriconoscibile con il quale Rifo si spinge verso una ricerca sonora articolata e dall’ascolto non proprio immediato.

On les avait laissés avec Les Marquises, des Carottes dans les cheveux. Leur musique était pleine d’îlots rêveurs, de nervures inconsolables et de textures accortes. Emilie Škrijelj et Tom Malmendier prolongent le continuum, continuent de creuser le sillon et gravent un nouveau disque. Ça s’appelle Tropism et ça sort sur Carton Records.

Un carton, on leur souhaite avec le cœur. Tropisme, au compteur, le duo ne change pas le moteur. Et s’aguerrit un peu plus encore. Emilie Škrijelj n’a toujours pas rechaussé son accordéon, pas le propos ici. Malmendier reste au fûts et scratche un timing de cadre face à la turntable d’Emilie. L’interplay est toujours aussi parfait (pour les coulisses, consultez le numéro de Gala spécial musique improvisée). Parfait mais encore plus deep dans ses capacités d’inventions, de manier l’humour comme d’autres manient le bâton. Pour faire avancer les choses. Dans le bruit blanc comme dans les peintures de paysages, dans les assauts cartoon comme dans les déclarations trop rapides pour être tout à fait comprises. Laissant là votre oreille se paumer entre le beau et l’intime malicieux. Patoko Mata est de cette trempe. Les deux autres plages travaillant encore ailleurs, têtues sans être écervelées, toutes entières occupées à ciseler cette musique et ses abstractions concrètes, électroniques, frappées, évocatrices, radicales et furieusement imagées.

Carton/Insub, 2021

8/10

A trumpet wizard, improviser and composer with a very innovative mind, even though Louis Laurain uses trumpets on this very unusual effort, you’d hardly even realize brass is involved as white noise, air sounds, vibrating metal, and nature, among others, are part of the inimitable formula.

“Franzform” starts the listen with what sounds like a helicopter as this percussive effect emanates from a pair of trumpets used like a stereo PA, effectively setting the tone for the record, and “Rhypnoptic” follows with a polyrhythmic pattern built from a sequence on the values amid feedback on the mixer.

Halfway through, “Satellites For Nawel” manipulates feedback from inside the instrument, as well as copper leaves on the bell, for a very distinct form of distortion, while the title track gets ominous, where the improvisation with an open window allows the sounds of birds, a tractor and even kids alongside the skittering, unclassifiable electronics. “90’s” exits the listen and might the most exploratory track, as the trumpet is transformed into a percussion instrument in Laurain’s very creative approach that involves a loop inside a mixer and valves altering the pitch to make a provisional drum pad.

An extremely original outing, Laurain has a history with jazz, electro-acoustics, visual and performance arts and experimental sounds, and he brings all those facets to a truly fascinating listening experience here.