French free improvisation, heavy on the percussive actions, and quite maximal in its results. The trio of Philippe Lenglet, Samuel Bodart and Falter Bramnk never worked as a trio before, but here they are recorded in Lille in 2003, in a set that’s billed as “live” in its spirit and performance, even though there wasn’t an audience in the room.
Interestingly, drummer Bodart also plays the Baschet sound sculptures, and I think we can just make one of them out in the interior photos; it’s good to see this important side of French historic sound art is still being honoured. The Baschet brothers were more like engineers, but they thrived when they teamed up with musicians Jacques and Yvonne Lasry, and vinyl collectors hunger for the 1960s records credited to Structures Sonores Lasry-Baschet. Bodart does a fair amount of rattling on this record, while Lenglet plucks his prepared acoustic guitar laid across his lap, and Bramnk generates no end of strange caterpillar-track effects from his prepared piano. The album is called L’Humeur Des Non Jours (CIRCUM DISC microcidi039), which might be a French idiom that doesn’t translate easily into English, but the theme is illustrated on the front cover by glass bottles and old books, an image suggestive of forbidden lore and alchemical practices.
Lots of textures and contrasts on offer; we might sometimes hear a guitar note or a compelling drone from a root note, but these “musical” moments are downplayed in favour of the continual percussive actions, strokes, and plucks, allowing us to savour the techniques of these three gifted players. Even so, they never settle for “neutral” non-music sounds, as we have sometimes experienced from the wilder end of the San Francisco home-made instrument players. The French trio are also very strong on dynamics, and never let their chosen approach overpower the need to keep the music moving and wriggling on its pathway as needed, sometimes pulling in on the leash of the wild beasts, or keeping one hand on the rudder when the wind drops. (I award myself a special mixed-metaphor prize for that sentence.) Very good. (15/10/2024)