Swiss experimentalists Cyril Bondi and d’incise continue their work with the Insub Meta Orchestra to propose questions about contemporary music, orchestras, minimalism, and advance their own take on the composer-improvisation dichotomy. Acceleration (INSUB. RECORDS cd24) is a grand stroke of simplicity concealing its delicate complexity. Performed by a large ensemble of some 40 talented musicians, the sound of it is a combination of conventional orchestral instruments with much electronic music and a good deal of percussion too. At one level you might say that Bondi and d’incise get their results by simply magnifying what they know – their own chosen instruments, that is – and scaling it up methodically. It’s interesting that all members of the ensemble are credited with playing shakers, claves, and sine tones. Somehow there’s a lot more going on here though, or rather a lot less…where previous outings of the Insubbers seemed to me very dense and layered, this time one discerns a plan to separate everything out into tidy, neatly-organised blocks of sound, and let everything unfold according to a strange and mysterious blueprint. Indeed if there was a plan, its traces have been elegantly concealed.
Within this rather schematic frame, the acoustic shaker-driven pulse keeps coming into view with the insistence of a swarm of tiny green grasshoppers, or an anemic pared-down version of a Steve Reich composition. At certain point where humming human voices join strings for an uncertain watery drone, it’s an extended ethereal moment – their pleas for temperance, mercy and hope are knocked back by the occasional crack of percussion and sudden surge of dark tones from the lower registers. The thought crossed my mind that Acceleration could be a reference to “accelerationism”, that very extreme Marxist-critical-intellectual plan to hasten the demise of Capitalism in some way (don’t ask me; it was espoused by Mattin, that noisy Basque trouble-maker from some years ago), but if the title refers to the structure of what I assume is a semi-composed piece, it’s remarkable how slow the actual acceleration is, as if we’re gradually sleep-walking to the edge of the cliff in slow motion, and without much ado. That in itself might be a good metaphor for our society’s pathetic collective response to the dangers of climate change, or something. (11/11/2022)
Free improvisation between two Italian players Enrico Fazio and Giancarlo Nino Locatelli – both performers with a lot of achievements in their careers, and old friends of each other too. Despite friendship they seem to have drifted apart as all of us do over time and the session from 25th April 2014 – now released as 7 Rocks (WE INSIST! RECORDS CDWEIN22) – marks their meeting up after an extended period of time. Yet here they are still carrying on their musical conversation as if the years or distances beyond the seas counted for naught. One hopes it was a joyous reunion. Interestingly, once they made it into the studio, they decided to sit a long way away from each other, obliging Fosca Massucco to work that shade harder with his mic placement and mixing desk. Locatelli speaks of “fresh, intense and light music, full of surprises”, a flow of creativity in the midst of which they sat as they played.
About two years later (no-one could accuse them of rushing things), they re-listened to the music and came up with the titles, which are something to do with the properties of rocks, how minerals are distilled into rock form, clearly implying that their own wonderful music is closely aligned with this metaphor and underscoring it with the remark “not reducible to formula, with the presence of impurities”. I’m glad these two old friends managed to meet up again, but I wish the music could have been a bit more exciting; I don’t doubt their performing and improvising skills, but much of what they play is derived from stale jazz moves, played in a bitty and disconnected way. There’s also a sense of politeness and stiffness dogging the session which they can’t seem to shake off, and it stifles them from playing anything truly adventurous. The music just lacks tension. (14/11/2022)