Antoine Chessex & Dave Phillips - Vrhaltnis (Coherent States-Krim Kram Records, 2026)

By Fotis Nikolakopoulos

Coming, both artists, from different fields of sound and audio making, one might ask why this recording is being presented here. Of course this is never an easy answer, but having to defend my choice, I’d say that the key word is improvisation. Not as a genre on its own, one that should define the sound produced by those two sound makers. Predominantly as a way of thinking, a practice that involves rethinking of old material and producing new only by being open to what will happen next.

Both artists, Antoine Chessex and Dave Phillips, have a long history in sound making (I would like to insist in this term rather than music making) and a long standing friendship too. They have been exchanging ideas and playing together for the past twenty years. Actually the source material for the two tracks consisting this CD, dates back two decades ago from a live performance in, and some studio time, in Switzerland.

Coming to the key word for this release, one that also involves chance, this material was reworked and manipulated in such a way that what is new and what is old, in terms of sound, is impossible to distinguish. Obviously and always there’s a lot of hard work behind all this, behind trying to present something new. One could say that this release borders at what we call noise, but this is the 21 ^st century and who can really tell or put exact limits on what we are listening? It could also be musique concrete. When Albert Ayler was blowing his sax, wasn’t it called non-music or, even, “noise”?

The two tracks unfold in a non linear way, denying, I believe, the gestures of time keeping (“what is old and what is new” exactly) or what is normal when you listen to a recording. They tend to breathe in and out, like inhaling sounds and exhaling sentiments, morphing, as you listen more and more, into a shapeless entity that has only sound in its definition. No genre, label or whatever else pins down free expression. Totally liberated in many ways.

Listen here: