Laurent Pernice / Jacques Barbéri / Dominique Beven
Nine Tales of the Winds
GERMANY PSYCHOFON RECORDS PR062 C.D. (2024)
The genesis of “Nine Tales…” began in 2018 with French industrial veteran Laurent Pernice’s “Le Corps Utopique” c.d.; the official soundtrack for Emma Gustafsson and Laurent Hatat’s choreographed play. That recording showcased the rediscovery and reappraisal of painfully obscure wind instruments from Sardinia to Laos and several points in between; Dominique Beven’s playing of these receiving the warm embrace of Laurent’s echoed, looped and reverbed f.x. An invitation to play at Marseilles’ “Jest Festival” in September 2022 meant that the launeddas, cromornes, khenes and grallas (!) were dusted off for a second time, the addition of a ‘genetically modified’ sax (?), vocals and Tibetan hunting horns (or rhadongs), coming courtesy of Palo Alto‘s Jacques Barbéri.
Numerous man hours of improv toil with the inevitable weeks of editing and mixing were added to the concert recording. The resultant material with the imposing “Ghost Mountains” and “Lost Angels” (aided by Laurent’s bullroarer cameo) being prime examples, show groupthink as giving these bygone instruments (some free-reeded, some not) precious breathing space, thereby avoiding overwhelming them in a fug of excessive electronic chatter. Those ‘x-meets-y’ comparisons such as David Munrow’s Early Music Consort being chaperoned by Delia Derbyshire or a Gryphon/T.O.N.T.O. Alliance, naturally splutter and stall at the very first bend.
The accompanying hype-sheet helpfully nudges the listener towards a jack up the volume option to “…fully grasp its infinite ramifications…” That form of bare-chest pummeling is usually the province of the metalloid hordes but, whatever way you play it, you’ll certainly reap the rewards here.