Ravi Shardja
Quatre Soliloques
FRANCE L’EAU DES FLEURS eaudesfleurs006 LP (2024)
On this solo LP our man Shardja plays bass guitar, lap steel guitar and electronic effects – plus a member of the kalimba family called a sansa.
His personal summary of the circumstances of the making of this record are riddled with witty contradictions, as he points out the numerical inconsistency of making four tracks with three instruments, and rejoices in the fact that “speech is banned”, even though the title may lead the listener to expect a long spoken screed suitable for the mouths of Hamlet, Lear, Othello, or other Shakespearean tragic figure. The element that’s important is his own mental state, and the music attempts to express the stirrings and rumblings of his own psyche, through the most “direct and introspective” means possible. Given this record label has, in its short lifespan, cultivated a friendly space for outsiders and eccentrics, today’s release fits right in with the aesthetic. Already we have visions of a slightly less histrionic version of Keiji Haino setting out to exorcise all his personal demons in our four-hour session, but Shardja appears to be following his own pathway. If anything, I keep being reminded of Syd Barrett, a fellow who also made the slide guitar into his own sounding-box of mental disarray, and even the back cover image of Quatre Soliloques – with its nude woman posing in a white-walled interior – puts me in mind of the cover of The Madcap Laughs. This is probably just a coincidence, but even so it’s about time Barrett was reclaimed from those who would confine his artistic vision to the realms of the twee English tea-party and teddy bear that walks by itself.
So what I enjoy about the music here is how it builds up gently but firmly, managing to go fairly bonkers in a short space of time before resuming a state of calmness and serenity. Ravi Shardja manages to pull this off four times, proving it’s no flash in the arteries, and the more you listen the more you realise he’s doing it in a very simple and uncomplicated manner. He never leans too heavily on his electronic pedals as crutches, yet he also allows them full range and volume when the occasion demands it, producing psychic yowls to match those of his own inner landscape. Shardja pushes his guitar and bass into places as yet unconquered by the worm – the Keith Rowe of the 1990s, who made A Dimension Of Perfectly Ordinary Reality and Harsh, would be encouraged by these impressive results.
Ravi Shardja has a fascinating history that I must investigate; founded the band Goloka in 1989 (later morphing into Gol), and also Couloir Gang from 2014. Gol made collaborative records with Charlemagne Palestine, Luc Ferrari, Brunhild Ferrari, Dave Nuss, Mik Quantius, Charles Hayward, Iancu Dumitrescu, and Ghédalia Tazartès, many of them released on the Planam label; some A-list players there from the worlds of avant-garde composition, post-punk improvised noise, and electro-acoustic tape work. I see we have encountered his unclassifiable work before on a cassette from the KommaNull label, plus the Grün ist grau LP of industrial music, and the amazing Zuur Cool LP by Couloir Gang. I’m also glad to have heard the Bernard Filipetti band Art & Technique on their far-out cassette (in which Shardja played bass). Now with this solo record we can really have a chance to hear him shine in an uncluttered free-form fashion, and the results are astounding. (12/11/2024)