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Radio ›› Je me souviens; Hommage à Georges Perec; Tu r’luttes
1 mars 2004
Par Robert Rapilly in Les Nouvelles d’Archimède #36 (France), 1 mars 2004

Texte

«Oeuvre superbe qui convoque notre mémoire auditive. En 26 règles distinctes d’écriture musicale, Jean Derome transfigure les tubes de l’époque.»

Depuis une décennie, existe-t-il meilleure recette que celle des «Fruits de Mhere», dans le Morvan du côté de Brassy? Inégalable sans doute. Il y a là une singulière géographie, rebelle à la logistique autoroutière, propice à la tradition du refus. Le clarinettiste Jacques Di Donato y a élu domicile, à l’écart du tintamarre festivalier. Et il accueille chaque été dans son village ce que l’art du bel aujourd’hui compte d’étincelant pour demain. On y croise des gens comme le Québécois Jean Derome, compositeur, interprète et poète passionné dès qu’il parle de Bach, d’oulipo, de Perec ou de toute chose relative à la modernité. En 1994, il a composé 26 pièces pour orchestre (une par lettre de l’alphabet) à partir des évocations musicales de Georges Perec dans «je me souviens». Oeuvre superbe qui convoque notre mémoire auditive. En 26 règles distinctes d’écriture musicale, Jean Derome transfigure les tubes de l’époque. Cette quête perecquienne des sons a été enregistrée en studio. On ressent, palpable, l’enthousiasme des interprètes, avant même les mémorables concerts qui s’ensuivirent. Quant aux oulipiens et oumupiens, ils ne manqueront rien du livret accompagnant ce beau disque.

blogue@press-2346 press@2346
1 mars 2000
Par Nick Mott in Audion #42 (RU), 1 mars 2000

Texte

Georges Pérec was a novelist and film maker from Paris (born 1936) and the music on Je me souviens is inspired by musical references from his book of the same name, a retrospective of French popular music from the 1950’s and 1960’s. As good time carnival music, show music with an inebriated air, it’s executed very well - it’s busy and it swings - but has limited appeal. There is a lot of French music that has taken elements similar to those here, and I think it works better when those elements biend into a more experimental music, as on the second piece from this CD, which is much more interesting, veering towards live Henry Cow or Zamla Mammaz Manna.

blogue@press-1277_005 press@1277_005
14 septembre 1998
Par Andrew Magilow in Splendid E-Zine (ÉU), 14 septembre 1998

Texte

«…tightly-wound tracks that are strict in arrangement yet mathematically complex, ranging in style from sultry jazz to circus music to mod-sounding surf music.»

If authenticity is your main attraction to revivalist music, Jean Derome and company should be right up your alley. On this stunning 43-track CD, Derome leads the way through two compositions that are subdivided into smaller pieces. The first 26 tracks, recorded in 1994, pay homage to the Oulipian Georges Pérec. In a true Oulipian approach, Derome produces tightly-wound tracks that are strict in arrangement yet mathematically complex, ranging in style from sultry jazz to circus music to mod-sounding surf music. There are even a few sprinklings of Monk emanating from some of the tunes, and the disc will be easily accessible to swing-band fans yet still eccentric enough to entice those searching for musical peculiarity. The second half of the CD, entitled Tu r’luttes, shows the more improvisational side of Derome and crew, as a chaotic, free jazz strain runs through the tracks. Think Zorn’s extremism without his aural ferocity. With many of your favourite Ambiances Magnetiques artists in tow, including Pierre Tanguay, René Lussier and Frank Lozano, Derome proves his amazing compositional ability while showcasing the outrageously overlooked Canadian talent that’s available. We’ve said it before, but if you haven’t checked out the Canadian experimental scene, you’re missing out on some awesome musical energy.

blogue@press-1876 press@1876
3 août 1998
Par Joe Grossman in Hollow Ear (ÉU), 3 août 1998

Texte

I love synchronicity. As soon as I check a few books out of the library by members of a literary movement called Oulipo, I get this CD by Jean Derome done as a tribute to Georges Pérec, one of the mainstays of Oulipo. The main composition, Je me souviens consists of 26 short pieces inspired by musical references in Pérec’s book of the same title. The music, composed for a 13-piece ensemble, ranges from jazz to circus music to r&b to spaghetti western soundtracks (the booklet lists “models” for each piece). Comparisons to John Zorn are probably unavoidable, but the size of the ensemble here requires the music to be more tightly written and arranged, with a lot less room for improvisation. The other composition on the CD, Tu r’luttes is subtitled “seventeen varied games for twelve improvisers”. Much more improvisatory and chaotic (at least it sounds that way), it comes even closer to Zorn territory, yet the instruments, mostly winds and percussion, give the music a feel that is less harsh and more RIO-like. One final note: for those who care about this sort of thing, each short piece in both compositions is indexed separately, so you have 43 tracks over about 70 minutes. Great for shuffle play.

blogue@press-1875 press@1875
1 juin 1998
Par Spike Taylor in Musicworks #71 (Canada), 1 juin 1998

Texte

Over the past fifteen years or so, Montréal composer and improvisor Jean Derome has built a body of work that expresses a singular musical vision that pushes out in many directions—for small, mid-sized, and large ensembles; for theatre, film, dance, and any other manner of collaboration. Derome is game for all of them. Two recent releases on the excellent cooperative label Ambiances magnétiques, features headfuls of musical ideas for three very different groups under similarly diverse circumstances. That is to say, there is unity to the entirety of Derome’s projects, but they are madly each their own and beautifully so. Je me souviens is not so much a large-ensemble work as one for big band. Thirteen players have a ball playing through a cycle of Derome’s knock-offs of swing, doo-wop, and big-band jazz, all laced with a characteristic sense of humour—note the front line of Martin Tétreault’s scatting turntable and a section for three jews-harps. This work is dedicated to the memory of French experimental writer Georges Pérec, whose comically enigmatic inventions on the page are well remembered by the composer and arranger with a sympathetically inventive will to swing. Listen to Je me souviens, read Pérec, and invent your own from there. There is an additional bonus band appended to the big band on this disc, namely a sextet of Québec improvisors playing up their differences against a Belgian side in what is called “17 jeux variés pour 12 improvisateurs”. There are furious moments of creation captured in moments of intense—and again, very humourous—sound effecting. The tunes are live collaborations, but evoke the image of a tape splicing bender from a bottomless source. They do this music boldly and all game for the game. La Bête—The Beast Within is original music commissioned from Jean Derome by the Montréal dance company O Vertigo. It’s a more careful work than Pérec hommage. More impressive, too, I think, in the way that it stands back from the focus of the project (the choreography, as opposed to the memory of Pérec or seventeen games) as a mature and highly original major work. It is no less chaotic than the other, yet Derome handles the content (I have not seen the O Vertigo production) with an openness and intensity that is a dance itself. Nine musicians are enlisted for La Bête, among them René Lussier, Diane Labrosse, Pierre Tanguay, and extra-specially Joane Hétu, doing vocal acrobatics. She tears into the centre of the action here amid textures of reeds, flutes, and piano, and holds the centre as lead instrumentalist—no lyrics, just new ideas pouring out of them all from Derome on down. I recommend this disc highly, and though you’ll wish you had been able to take in the entire experience of La Bête—The Beast Within, the CD stands with Jean Derome’s best works of any size.

blogue@press-1003_001 press@1003_001
1 janvier 1998
Par Declan O’Driscoll in Rubberneck #27 (RU), 1 janvier 1998

Texte

Although best known as the author of navels which recreated and reshuffled the standard narrative form (eg, Life A User’s Mantlal and A Void, the latter novel written without the letter e), it could be argued that Georges Pérec’s most personal and pla~yful work centred on bst-making. He exulted in cataloguing the most trivial and quotidian of details; a list of all the food eaten in one year, or 12 ways to arrange books or, most importantly for Jean Derome, his memories of jazz musicians and popular music. This is the source-point for a series of superbly executed pastiches of the musical styles and musicians mentioned and, very properly, each track title comes with a bst detailing the dedicatee, the source of the pastiche, salient facts, and the relevant text. An evocation of Sidney Bechet is particularly accurate and beguiling. Galop viennois’ is a very amusing track which begins with a simple piano passage which the pianist has great difficulty resolving before it moves to brass section, village marching band, and finally whistling accompanied by mouth harp. The CD also includes the meeting of a Derome-led sextet with the Belgian group White Wine Dark Grapes for a series of 17 game-structured pieces.

blogue@press-1374 press@1374

Autres textes dans

  • Margen #12 (Espagne), 1 janvier 1998
  • Jazz Critique (Japon), 1 octobre 1997
  • Rumore #69 (Italie), 1 octobre 1997
  • Gränslöst (Suède), 1 mars 1997

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