Very good Canadian improv from Philippe Lauzier and Éric Normand on their Not The Music / DO (TOUR DE BRAS) CD. These are live recordings made in the Aberdeen Centre in Moncton, and one of the things you’ll appreciate here is the slightly reverberant qualities of the room, what we might call the “deserted school assembly hall at midnight” effect. Lauzier plays his soprano sax and bass clarinet hooting like a benighted owl, while Normand contributes bass guitar and snare drum, using the latter to create remarkable textured rattles, scrapes and bumps. “Gentle noise and cracked linearity” is how the label describe their work, going on to praise the manner in which they create an entire environment with their all-enveloping sound. Extremely evocative music, performed with a gentle touch and propelled with a calming energy that keeps everything buoyant, even when the tone is rather sad and lost. 100 copies packaged in a brown paper bag with hand screen-printing; the string might be making a visual pun, “Knot The Music”. From 7th April 2015.
