Diatribes, the duo of Cyril Bondi on the drums and d’ incise on electronics, has been, in and out, running for twenty years. Their take on bridging improvisation with microtonal small scale compositions has always been traveling with guests that were equal parts of the aforementioned procedure. Here, on this CD, they revive all this by welcoming saxophonist and improviser Jean-Luc Guionnet.
Using the verb welcoming is not an accident for sure. Guionnet has for a very long time a champion of an experimental approach towards the saxophone –towards the orthodoxy of sound making I dare say. So is the duo of diatribes. Here, on the always full of surprises Insub label, they collectively try, maybe even struggle, to create symbolisms. Symbolisms that have shaped improvisation as a genre and practice against hierarchy in music. Questions are posed as to what is music when it comes to established realities of its tradition: melody, soloing, playing aggressively in order to be heard (the antithesis: microtonal playing), what is this tradition of, especially them, drums and saxophone in jazz’s history.
The addition of a third person in diatribes’ quest for total freedom in producing sounds, makes things even more complicated, even if Guionnet knows his way well into those uncharted territories. Sudden, small scale, eruptions of notes by the saxophone are followed –or going along- by low key drumming (even with some rhythmic patterns from time to time) and the electronics, along with other unknown sound sources, of d’incise that glue all this together.
It is not an easy task for sure. The sounds that come out of this cd are demanding –both towards the listener, as they were by their producers. Many times the tracks of L'apport: An awkward position feel like a work in progress. Accepting the practicalities of sound mediums, like duration, all six of them, clocking just less than forty minutes, could be excursion into the unknown. Long distance runners in collective improvisation.
Listen here:
@koultouranafigo
0 comments:
Post a Comment