Four new items from the French label Fou Records dedicated to free improvisation in all its forms.
Off Course! (FOU RECORDS FR-CD 41) showcases the double bass player Joëlle Léandre with percussionist Paul Lovens, drawn from a concert performance in Paris May 2013. Album title is one that likens improvised music to a “journey”, a conceit which is picked up in Jean Rochard’s sleeve note – “rejoindre la danse des détours malins”… and if there is a journey our two players are determined to follow the Chet Baker exhortation of “Let’s Get Lost”, resulting in a long 28-minute piece of byways, shortcuts, diversions, and even perhaps one or two dead ends. I like the moments when Léandre’s bass moans like a human voice, and her accompanying voice moans like an animal. Lovens rattles a bit too much for me, but at least he’s trying to propel the music somewhere. For all their efforts, we don’t quite experience the same exciting lift-off as the leaping demon on the cover.
Unusual set is Haut-Coeur (FOU RECORDS FR-CD 42) – for one thing, there’s the hurdy-gurdy, an instrument which rarely makes an appearance in the world of new music or free improvisation, except for those who have a long memory and recall the work of English player of Stevie Wishart, who used her instrument as part of Chris Burn’s Ensemble in the 1990s. It’s played here by Emmanuelle Parrenin, and completing the trio we have label boss Jean-Marc Foussat with his typical Synthi AKS and voice, plus the estimable Quentin Rollet on alto saxophone. They did it in Allumés Du Jazz in Le Mans, which is more than just a record shop but a network for independent labels seeking distribution; the concert took place on Disquaire Day 2022, which I assume is the French equivalent of Record Store Day. The trio’s music has real charm and a melancholy passion. The sounds are delicate, and the musicians work their way through long excursions paying great attention to subtle shifts in timbre and tone. The intoning voices of Foussat and Parrenin are especially haunting. Printed quotes from Robert Desnos, the surrealist poet, indicate the lyrical intentions of these very sensible musicians.
Quite restrained and detailed playing on Periferia (FOU RECORDS FR-CD 43), which was originally recorded in 1993. The players are Daunik Lazro (alto sax), Carlos Zingaro (violin), Sakis Papadimitriou (piano) and Jean Bolcato (double bass). I like the way that one track promises the listener an ‘Inner Earthquake’, while the actual music is more like a gentle tremor; indeed most of the pieces here demonstrate remarkable poise in the face of imminent upheaval. Just three years after this, Daunik Lazro would go on to record a trio set with Evan Parker and Joe McPhee, and one can discern affinities with those two larger-than-life personalities in Lazro’s style here. Carlos Zingaro from Lisbon is one I would like to hear more from; on ‘Embellie’, for instance, he exhibits remarkable modesty yet creates a complex counter-pattern to Lazro’s free-mode puffs. Zingaro also has an astringent sound which is appealing. Click on to ‘Preparations’ to hear some of Papadimitriou’s more experimental side, as this Greek improviser exhibits impressive inside-piano antics. Papadimitriou also provides the sleeve note, enlightening us on the various interpretations of the word Periferia: “you are always far from the centre…you remain marginal by definition”, words which may ring true with any improvising musician.
Emmanuel Cremer, impressively, gets all the sounds he needs from a single instrument – the cello. His Cinq Chants d’Athènes (FOU RECORDS FR-CD 47) is much more than just a showcase for his techniques – his whole body seems to vibrate with excitement as he bows the instrument, and the rich resonant sounds are as refreshing as a good bout of physical therapy to the listener. I never heard this French cellist before, but he has appeared on a few records by Troublemakers, a DJ electronica combo from Marseilles. Besides the full-blooded bowing and strumming techniques we hear on the opening track, he can also summon up earth-shaking drones (‘Mythes et Utopie’), and a complex method evidently involving half-muffled strings, plucking, and intense non-musical bowing actions, heard on ‘Infini sans Terre’. Here, he seems driven by a musical passion that’s not far from demonic possession, as if compelled to play at lightning speed and pack all his words into a single breathless sentence. It’s much more than simply exhibiting “extended technique”, and it’s more about the content of the music which, like a wild living organism, has taken hold of his very core of being. There’s also ‘Deep in Chimaeras’ Space’, another piece propelled by the same single-minded devotion, and moments of music fire up where he pretty much stays in the same place, mining obsessively at the same notes, the same position on the neck, trying to nail down an elusive truth. With a title like that, one can imagine an alternative musical history where Cremer had somehow managed to appear on the Sun Ra record A Fireside Chat with Lucifer, except that he’d be in danger of eclipsing Hayes Burnett and James Jacson with his highly-animated performative style. It might be his work is occasionally enhanced with digital echo or other effects on these 2019 recordings, but the genius of the playing continues to shine throughout this gem.
All the above from 4th October 2022.