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31 octobre 2009

La Huit nous offre quatre nouveaux DVDs d’artistes de réputations internationales: The Ex, Sylvie Courvoisier, The Last Poets et Jimmy Mohammed Mohammed sont maintenant disponible sur actuellecd.com.

blogue@nouv-9535 nouv@9535
31 octobre 2009
Par M in Where’d All My Friends Go? (ÉU), 31 octobre 2009

Texte

«The disc gurgles, buzzes, and oozes across the aural spectrum.»

Live • 33 • 45 • 78 is a collaboration of two beyond-deconstructionist turntablists: the Canadian Martin Tétreault and the German Ignaz Schick. They’re well past the idioms marked by the ‘broken music’ approach or Christian Marclay - their sound comes from the machine itself, removed from vinyl + needle friction. Schick is the younger of the two, but has honed an improvisational approach with Charlemagne Palestine and Don Cherry, while Tétreault has played and recorded with, as well as influenced many in the field of modern creative or improvised music such as Otomo Yoshihide and Jean Derome. Here, a pair of 2006 live performances from Belgium and Switzerland document the duo seizing from their machines sounds which are then forced to move in three tempos - quick, quicker, quickest. The disc gurgles, buzzes, and oozes across the aural spectrum.

blogue@press-3936 press@3936
30 octobre 2009
Par Bruce Lee Gallanter in Downtown Music Gallery (ÉU), 30 octobre 2009

Texte

«This is a most incredible collaboration, even if it is nearly impossible to describe.»

Every week I hear at least one new CD that blows my mind and makes my life here at DMG better even when things are a bit slow. This week’s treasure is a fabulous duo CD by our old friend Hans Reichel on daxophone only with Ganesh Anandan on something called a Shruti stick and metallaphone. Both of these men are instrument makers and have created some rather unique and fascinating sounds. Mr. Reichel has been playing the daxophone for more than 20 years, bowing & tapping on pieces of wood help by a small vice with a pick-up attached. A Shruti stick is a 12-string electric zither with prepared strings; a metallophone is made up of tuned metal bars which are struck with different types of mallets. The daxophone has a most extraordinary sound, like a disembodied spirit with a twisted voice. On Bird Talk the dax seems to speaking or singing in some subtle alien language while Ganesh taps quietly on the metallaphone which sounds a bit like a metal harp being plucked. The strange vocal quality of the daxophone is something else, like someone singing odd sounds without words which still evoke many feelings. On Imaginary Opera, Ganesh creates an ominous drone by letting just one long note hover suspensefully in the distance. At other times the daxophone sounds like animal trying to speak, trying to twist words into recognizable shapes. All three of these instruments are so distinctive that it is difficult to explain the way they effect us, they exist in a shadow world in between what we think is music and dialogue. There is one solo piece by Ganesh (In the Stillness) so we get to hear just the sound of his his instruments, allowing to hear what exactly he does. The metallopohone sounds a bit like a metal marimba and it often creates haunting melodies while the dax sings along in its own marvelous language. This is a most incredible collaboration, even if it is nearly impossible to describe.

blogue@press-3916 press@3916
30 octobre 2009
Par Bruce Lee Gallanter in Downtown Music Gallery (ÉU), 30 octobre 2009

Texte

«Tim Brady is perhaps the most ambitious guitarist and composer to emerge from Canada over the past couple of decades.»

Tim Brady is perhaps the most ambitious guitarist and composer to emerge from Canada over the past couple of decades. He rarely seems to be tied to any one category like jazz, classical or progressive rock, although his music involves all of those and more. This double disc (CD+DVD) set is Tim’s most ambitious work yet. My 20th Century features two ensembles: Bradyworks (el. guitar, piano, saxes, sampler & percussion) and the Quatuor Molinari (string quartet) plus video. This work is broken into four parts, each one an homage to an certain artist. Strumming (for John Lennon)> is first and it was inspired by the John Kennedy assassination, the arrival of the Beatles and the way TV brought the world together for these monumental events. The piece features multiple electric guitars and a looped video image. I dig the way a melody and then some guitar noise is trying to break through the multiple layers of strumming. Each of the various layers of guitar parts evokes different ways the electric guitar effects our lives. Traces (for Charlie Christian) was inspired by a famous early jazz guitar solo (Solo Flight from 1941), in which Mr. Christian joined Benny Goodman on stage at Carnegie Hall, thus breaking down racial barriers. This piece features Bradyworks, Tim’s working quintet, and it is a deconstruction of Mr. Christian’s solo. I like the way that this work turns the original melody inside out, so we hear it in different ways, speeding it up and slowing it down in places. Hommage à Rosa Luxemburg was inspired by a painting by Jean-Paul Riopelle, “a work obsessed with ghostly images of birds and nature”. This piece features the Quatuor Molinari string quartet and samples of the casino where the painting was hung. It is long and consistently fascinating with slowly swirling layers of strings punctuated by selective samples. The final piece is called Double Quartet and it does indeed feature both groups. It is dedicated to the composer Dmitri Shostakovich and was inspired by the composers’s long life in Russia under various regimes and the great music that he composed. This piece is the most ambitious yet and is about 30 minutes long, broken into three sections. As I listen to this piece for the third time in 2 days, I am still amazed by the many things involved: Zappa-like quirky writing, tight inter-connected lines moving together and around one another like with the precision of a successful train schedule (not NJ Transit). The video DVD provides another source of stimulation to be dealt with and again it takes time to absorb the many different ideas involved. A great deal of preparation and work obviously went into wonderful double disc set, so please take the time seriously study this grand work. It will be well worth it, I can assure you.

blogue@press-3917 press@3917
30 octobre 2009
Par Bruce Lee Gallanter in Downtown Music Gallery (ÉU), 30 octobre 2009

Texte

«Pretty engaging»

Ignaz Schick is a Berlin-based musician who runs the Zangi label and is a member of the International Turntable Orchestra, along with Martin Tétreault, Philip Jeck & Dieb 13. Mr. Tétreault has been playing turntables with & without records for many years and can be heard on more than 25 discs. Tétreault was one of the first turntablists to abandon records and just play & manipulate the turntable itself. Besides being a strong improviser, Mr. Tétreault is a concept man as many of his discs can attest to. Sometimes his concepts are successful and sometimes not so. This disc appears to be a live duo with two master turntable manipulators. It often sounds as if there are few if any records involved. What we hear are clicks, static, rubbed styles and assorted turntable and tone-arm manipulations. Ping pong balls? balloons? What exactly is going on? Only these turntablists know for sure. The results are more diverse and often fascinating than one might imagine. Much of this is similar to electronic music but more stark. Each sound seems to works and fits well into in its own place. Like listening to a bunch of machines whizzing and whirring by the themselves, yet there is a concept or direction. Pretty engaging, nonetheless.

blogue@press-3918 press@3918
30 octobre 2009
Par Bruce Lee Gallanter in Downtown Music Gallery (ÉU), 30 octobre 2009

Texte

«If I didn’t know better, I would’ve thought that this disc was a soundtrack to a native American psychedelic ceremony.»

This is Rainer Wiens third appearance on the AM label, both previous ones have involved new music violinist Malcolm Goldstein. I can’t think of many other discs which have featured the kalimba or thumb piano in a new music setting except for Richard Crandell who has two discs on Tzadik. The Valley of Green Ghosts opens with a sublime, earthy kalimba solo, delicate and enchanting. If a Bird Sings in the Forest is a fine solo for soprano sax, rich and slightly twisted. Blood Fever is violin solo by Mr. Goldstein and it is stark and a bit eerie. The title track features violin (Joshua Zubot) and flute shadowing each other in a most mysterious way playing some bent (written) harmonies. Since Mr. Wiens only plays on a few of these pieces, it sounds as if he has written or at least directed the other solo & duo pieces. All of these pieces do fit together and seem to evoke an ancient ritualistic vibe, hence the CD’s title. Jean Derome plays some superb flute on Bird of Jade, an instrument which he doesn’t get to play often enough. Shh… Whisper to the Wind features some more strange, bent violin and breath-like vocal sounds or whispers. If I didn’t know better, I would’ve thought that this disc was a soundtrack to a native American psychedelic ceremony. Does anyone still do peyote or magic mushrooms? I wouldn’t know.

blogue@press-3919 press@3919