Six related items from Jean-Marc Foussat, who operates the Fou Records label in France. These were all released on his Propagande Véritable & Merveilleuse sub-label and show him duetting with various friends and fellow improvisers, sometimes playing his beloved Synthi AKS. All from 15 February 2022.
Voyageurs (PVM Vol 1) with Bruno Billaudeau contains nice moments with piano and voice, but it’s mostly an electronic session, JMF’s Synthi and the mysterious “blue boxes” of Billaudeau, and one of their excursions is over 26 mins of them getting lost as they visit the ‘Cavernes Biens Pulpeuses’, at risk of losing their minds as more and more ghosts from ancient Breton history swarm around them. Eeroid and compelling, especially the way things turn completely nuts midway through the sojourn, and the two unhappy tourists end up as gibbering wrecks. This track appeals as it sparks with the most vigour, but there’s a lot to be said for the washed-out mode of ‘Forte Concentration’, which could be heard as a less-uptight take on “minimal improv”, one that doesn’t require us to sign up to fifteen types of philosophical inquiry, and simply asks us to listen.
Pression des Pressions (PVM Vol 2), another 2020 date with Césario Fa, fellow French improvver who is likewise at home with synths and circuit-bending, also lending his lips and throat to a personal form of sound poetry. Verging on formless are their wild and untamed forays into the purple bushes of synthesis, but there’s much to enjoy in the extremely “busy” surface and generous amounts of content for the ear to process, even if it arrives in mostly jumbled-up and wayward forms. ‘Domaine Sensuel’ wins the prize for raw incoherent burbling and a title most likely to have been used by Paul Delvaux, the Surrealist painter. ‘Sur un sujet qui passe…’ hoves in at over 35 mins, and though the duo may be open to charges of sprawling like jellyfish on the beach at this point, these jellyfish can sting.
Jeunesse, Amours & Santé (PVM Vol 3) – these titles are starting to feel like lost romantic novels from French literature…this one made with Emmanuel Cremer, a cellist who also bows his resonator in the Raymond Boni Fortuna 21 Octet and has been remixed by Troublemakers, the electronica DJs from Marseilles. This release allows us to savour the struggle between acoustic and electronic instruments, a battle which continues to play out in improvisation scenarios across the globe. In this instance, JMF flings his chattering analogue teeth against the wood-grained slow tones of Cremer, generating an odd emotional sensation – wild excitement tempered by melancholic sighs. Might it be stretching a point to also look for some tension between modernist and classical music? This theory holds some water, but there’s so many stylistic experiments flying around on ‘En Conscience’ that the listener is just spoiled for choice during these juicy 30 mins. There’s a real solid foundation to the playing here, it feels like music that won’t just fly away in the wind.
Le Bruit de l’amer (PVM Vol 4) with Jacques Levavasseur has a nice cover design drawn by Jacques…can’t find out much about this fellow except it sounds like he plays the violin and drums on this Jan 2021 set. ‘Le Moindre Des Choses’ finds him noodling at his stringed instrument like a terrier chewing a bone while JMF provides fascinating mumbles from behind the woodshed. Track two ‘Le Feu Reclame Sa Part’ proves our man Levavasseur is a truly jazzy all-rounder tinkering behind the kit like an amateur knitter. This “feu” may take a little while to reach full heat / candour through 19 mins, but does feature some occasional vocal yawps and wails (from JMF?) which are both animalistic and human, as of primordial beings learning a language or reinventing folk song. Some fine moments on this album, but it feels like we’re waiting a while for delivery of the cream cheese while our two friends spend much time treading water.
Just two long tracks on Envol (PVM Vol 5), a duet featuring Aymeric Avice, the trumpeter from Circum Grand Orchestra and the Sylvain Kassap Quintet (and also happens to have played on a late record by Magma). Again, matters take some time before lift-off is achieved, but ‘One Love’ has moments of excitement floating and flying around in a lengthy free-form gaseous structure of synthi-richness, and Avice resembles an insane elephant let loose in a 19th-century circus. He also resembles the small mouse that said elephant is chasing around the ring. The track even features clunky dance beats in its heaving mass. If there’s a unifying characteristic to these six records, it might simply be the accrual and layering of multiple audio elements pulling in different directions, just to see how much they can play and how much the listener can carry with their ears.
On Plumes de Gel Réminiscent (PVM Vol 2.2) we’re back with Césario Fa again for a single 45-minute exploit. This one happens to contain more of the unpredictable, humourous, and just plain odd musical eruptions that Jean-Marc Foussat has made one of his signature calling-cards. There’s some pretty nifty free-jazz piano playing for starters, running up and down the keys like an ice-statue moquette of Cecil Taylor and early Herbie Hancock, but it’s the synthi noises that really win the day for sheer goofed-out bizarreness. I think it’s mostly a synth album but there are also echoed and layered voices adding to the air of loopy insouciance. We may be some way now from the calculating genius of Anthony Braxton, but I’ll gladly sup two glasses of red wine with these friendly French maniacs any day of the week.