Unusual record is Le Corps Utopique (ADN RECORDS DNN 033 C) – although an album of instrumentals produced by processed wind instruments, it began life as a dance piece. Specifically, an attempt by dancers Emma Gustafsson and Laurent Hatat to represent a lecture by Michel Foucault through the medium of dance. This may not be the ideal place or time to delve into the worlds of French philosophy, but I will point out that Laurent Perrice, who was the co-creator of the music here, is also a member of Palo Alto; you may recall we noted Difference and Repetition, a formidable record of dense French prog-art music which endeavoured to express the philosophical ideas of Gilles Deleuze (by way of the science fiction of Alain Damasio). Through a mysterious compositional process, Pernice elected to work only with wind instruments for Le Corps Utopique, and to help him he enlisted the instrument collector and player Dominique Beven, whose wide-ranging skills and collection of instruments from many different locations and cultures were brought into play, lending the album its very eclectic and diverse surface effects. Pernice is playing them too, but he’s also doing the studio manipulation – lots of looping, echo, and repeated phrases, plus some treatments to disguise the normal timbres of the flutes, clarinets, ocarinas and doudouks. Interesting theme, potentially rich and intellectually stimulating and supported by suitably complex track titles, yet the music is mostly unengaging, like a form of background process-music. The album title likely refers to the 1966 essay by Michel Foucault, The Utopian Body. (04/04/2022)
Intense record of solo double bass by Swedish player Johan Berthling. His Björnhorn (THANATOSIS PRODUKTION THT12) is his debut as solo recording and it’s impressive to hear the way he throws himself into the task, and is not afraid to touch on as many extremes as he possibly can – frenetic sawing actions, deep bass throbs, monotonous long-form grinding and groaning. It’s also quite some way from the high-energy firework jazz we have heard from Fire! Orchestra and Arashi, both Norwegian jazz-improv groups who don’t spare the horses when it comes to serving up platters of high-octane raw meat. Berthling solo is more thoughtful and contemplative, as if intent on exploring the acoustic space of the studio with his resonant thwacks, but also threading his way around his own interior spaces. Six segments titled ‘Björnhorn’ are presented here, with a break in the middle where he plays a Charlie Haden composition in his own lugubrious manner. Limited CD of 100 copies, though there’s also an LP version.
Berlin-based sound artist Jana Irmert here with What Happens At Night (FABRIQUE RECORDS FAB097). For this record, she took the unusual step of working primarily (though not exclusively) with recordings generated from smashed lava rocks…she rubbed them together to generate sounds, but also became fascinated with looking at the layers of strata within these volcanic fragments. There seems to have been some process whereby she aligned the visual information with the sonic forms, which led her to speculate and ruminate on the passing of time, as measured in “millennia of existence and non-existence”. After gazing at her screen, mankind’s presence on the planet suddenly seemed very insignificant to her, a consideration which evidently awaits any serious student of geology. Although rubbing rocks may sound unpromising, and her method may lead you to anticipate a record of empty process noise, What Happens At Night is in fact a very charming and poetic work. We could attribute these qualities to the album title, to the combination of field recordings and minimal synth melodies with her lava work, to track titles such as ‘Dust is the Rust of Time’, and the image on the cover which seems to show her (or another woman) walking through a time portal into the distant past; that image alone should resonate with Kate Bush fans. Last heard from Irmert with The Soft Bit, also made with rocks (and metal objects); her work has seemed a bit insubstantial to us on previous outings, but this is a good one. (04/04/2022)