Tyshawn Sorey : That / Not (Firehouse 12, 2007)
Merci au jeune guitariste turco-suisse Yaman Palak de m'avoir fait découvrir ce joyau new-yorkais. Le percussionniste Tyshawn Sorey transmue les sons de la batterie, du piano, du trombone et de la basse, dans un miroir des plus poétiques. Sur le double disque That / Not, la réflexion se situe dans cette région imperceptible qui existe entre “différence” et “similarité”. La question y est le “pourquoi” et le “comment”.
Merci pour la clairvoyance de ces 43 minutes de Permutations for Piano Solo sur cet album enregistré en 2007. La particularité d’une réflexion des plus concentrées et lucides repose dans mon rayonnage de souffles éthérés, où l’on trouve aussi les couleurs de For Bunita Marcus, les blanches vibrations d’Alvin Lucier et les îles imaginaires d’Anthony Braxton.
Tyshawn Sorey : That / Not (Firehouse 12)
Edition : 2007.
CD1 : 01/ Leveled 02/ Template I 03/ Sympathy 04/ Permutations For Solo Piano 05/ Seven Pieces Fo Trombone Quartet 06/ Template II 07/ That/Not Songs - CD2 : 01/ Sacred and Profane 02/ Template III 03/ Four Duos 04/ Cell Block 05/ That's a Blues, Right? 06/ Template IV 07/ Commentary
Hildegard Kleeb © Le son du grisli
Hildegard Kleeb est pianiste. Interprète de Morton Feldman, Alvin Lucier, Maria de Alvear ou encore Anthony Braxton, elle donnait récemment sur World News sa lecture de thèmes signés Peter Hansen.
Eugene Chadbourne, Dinosaur on The Way (House of Chadula, 1985)
Que ce soit dit : il y a actuellement une sorte de Sun Ra en liberté qui s'appelle Eugene Chadbourne, et dont l'oeuvre labyrinthique dépasse les limites du raisonnable, de l'humain, et du bon goût. Dinosaur on The Way, comme tous les autres « On The Way » (Pee Wee on The Way, Muppet on The Way...), appartient à la sous-catégorie des « Tape Madness », autrement dit des disques lo-fi du Docteur, qui constituent la partie la plus sale, destroy, cinglée de son œuvre pourtant déjà magnifiquement secouée.
Dès les premières notes, on sait que ça va être sauvage, mais d'une sauvagerie sans doute encore peu égalée par Chadbourne lui-même. Ce qui rend Dinosaur on The Way aussi velu, aussi définitif, aussi apocalyptique, c'est le taux de distorsion, le degré d'incandescence du son, porté à blanc par la flamme alchimique de l'analogique. Le docteur s'excuse sur la pochette pour le magnéto cassettes qui tombe en panne. Et ça s'entend, dans la juxtaposition anarchique des plages, dans ces chansons enfantines passées au hachoir lysergique d'une guitare monstrueuse, dans ce How Can You Kill Me, I'm Already Dead d'anthologie, qui dévaste tout et ne laisse à aucune herbe le loisir de repousser. Chadbourne s'autorise une cavalcade sonique meurtrière, et le son est si cru qu'il nous rappelle qu'avant d'être des citoyens, nous sommes d'abord des carnivores assoiffés de carnage. L'esprit du rock garage est là, le spectre de Jimi Hendrix n'est pas loin et c'est bien dans l'acide que les mains machiavéliques du docteur ont trempé les guitares. Chadbourne abuse également magnifiquement de la reverb analogique, et s'égare parfois tout seul au centre de la chambre à échos. Le reste est une succession de collages dadaïstes, de lambeaux de country réverbérée, de chiens qui aboient, de vent, et de guitares toujours aussi barbelées, tourbillonnantes, en entonnoir. Plus loin, il achève de massacrer les Beatles à coup de pelle (ou de rateau électrique) : While My Guitar Gently Weeps (ou ce qu'il en reste) est la reprise idéale pour se faire interner d'office. Enfin, s'il faut avancer un dernier argument en faveur de ce méchant disque, précisons que sur la liste des musiciens, aux côtés de John Zorn, Kramer, David Licht et Jenny Chadbourne, une des filles du docteur, figurent Charles Manson et le merveilleux Révérend Jim Jones (914 victimes).
Eugene Chadbourne : Dinosaur on The Way (House of Chadula)
Edition : 1985.
CD : 01/ How Can You Kill Me ? 02/ Wiffer Woffer Song 03/ Eugene Stinks 04/ Red Headed Stranger 05/ Greetings From Grenada 06/ Mc Death 07/ She Was a Leaving, Breathing Piece of Dirt 08/ Answer the Phone (?) 09/ Psychology 101 (?) 10/ While My Guitar Gently Weeps 11/ Ghostbusters 12/ Kiowa War Song 13/ Octopus Garden 14/ Her Name Is 15/ They Froze Jones's Brain 16/ Yardbird Suite 17/ Good Lovin' 18/ Nympho Lodge 19/ Eugene Stinks 20/ Who's Gonna Take The Garbage Out ? 21/ Strawberry Fields For Ever 21/ Driftin' Blues.
Arnaud Le Gouëfflec © Le son du grisli
Arnaud Le Gouëfflec est écrivain et musicien. Il anime en outre Chadbourneries, blog incontournable pour qui s’intéresse à l’œuvre d’Eugene Chadbourne.
Joe McPhee : Tenor & Fallen Angels (Hat Hut, 1977)
This record is one that I keep coming back to over and over and over. The words that come to mind when I listen to it are « master », « poet », and « honest ». Each time I listen to this record I hear new things. It's completely compelling, engaging, and overwhelming in the same way Brahms overwhelmed me when I was a kid, or the way I have been knocked out by the work of a great novelist. It's incredible that this was a record that McPhee made in the earlier part of his career. He could have stopped after this record and still be a living legend. But he has continued to expand his mastery and artistry over his long career, and has maintained the intensity and integrity he had on this record to this day. Heroic!
Joe McPhee : Tenor & Fallen Angels (Hat Hut / Amazon)
Enregistrement : 1976. Edition : 1977. Reédition : 2000.
CD : 01/ Knox 02/ Good-Bye Tom B. 03/ Sweet Dragon 04/ Tenor 05/ Fallen Angels
Daniel Levin © Le son du grisli
Daniel Levin est violoncelliste. Il a récemment publié Fuhuffah et a joué aux côtés de Joe McPhee dans l'Open Ensemble emmené par Joe Giardullo sur Red Morocco.
Malcolm Goldstein : Goldstein Plays Goldstein (d'c, 1994)
Goldstein Plays Goldstein is one of my favourite albums ; it's so alive and full of expression. I never have the impression Malcolm Goldstein is making music, rather, I think this is simply music in its pure existence. The first number, Ishi "Man Waxati", recorded in 1988, is probably my favourite track. The music is moving constantly and even when there are hardly any notes being played it still doesn't stop. The music carries you, pulls you, throws you back. Every single sound seems to be full of meaning. There is no pretending, no showing off. Listening to this recording is an emotional workout.
Malcolm Goldstein : Goldstein Plays Goldstein (Dacapo / d'c 2)
Enregistrement : 1986-1994. Edition : 1994.
CD : 01/ Ishi "Man Waxati" Soudings 02/ Gentle Rain Preceding Mushrooms 03/ Qernerâq - Our Breath As Bones 04/ Soundings For Solo Violin
Karin Schistek © Le son du grisli
Karin Schistek est pianiste. On a pu l'entendre récemment au sein de Lapslap sur Itch et Scratch. Elle est aussi membre de l'Electric Cowboy Cacophony.
Susanna and the Magical Orchestra : List of Lights and Buoys (Rune Grammofon, 2004)
Absolutely brilliant debut release from young Norwegian duo consisting of Susanna Wallumrød (vocals) and Morten Qvenild (keyboards). Nine beautiful low key original songs plus highly personal interpretations of Dolly Parton's Jolene and Leonard Bernstein's Who Am I makes this one of the strongest Norwegian debut releases in a very long time. If you´ve heard Believer (also included here) from Money Will Ruin Everything you know what to expect. Produced by Andreas Mjøs (Jaga Jazzist) and Deathprod.
Susanna and the Magical Orchestra : List of Lights and Buoys (Rune Grammofon)
Edition : 2004.
CD : 01/ Who Am I 02/ Jolene 03/ Turn the pages 04/ Friend 05/ Hello 06/ Believer 07/ Sweet devil 08/ Baby 09/ Time 10/ Distance Blues and Theory 11/ Go
Heribert Friedl © Le son du grisli
Musicien, Heribert Friedl anime le label NonVisualObjects sur lequel est récemment sorti Recherche_00.
Markus Eichenberger : Atemketten 20.8/Atemkreis (Unit, 1986)
I am Kommissar Hjuler from Flensburg, Germany, and I have a huge collection of experimental music, also my own music can be regarded as really absurd and weird, Thurston Moore stated that my music and the music of my wife Mama Baer belong to the most experimental music he knows.
One of my favourite LPs is Markus Eichenberger Atemketten 20.8/Atemkreis on Unit Records, a recording for bass-clarinet and tape / bass-saxophone and tape. The record is from 1986, the German Markus Eichenberger has made two records and several tapes, the second record is even more jazz-oriented clarinet, but my favourite one is not compareable to music one knows. In 1991, Bob Ostertag presented his LP Sooner or Later, that is a bid in the vein of the Eichenberger LP, but not that poignant. The Eichenberger is to me art brut with simple arrangement and highest musical output. I am sure that only few people love this LP. I first listened to it at Uli Rehberg's UNTERM DURCHSCHNITT / Walter Ulbrich Schallfolien AG in Hamburg in 1986, Asmus Tietchens and Uli Rehberg (Ditterich von Euler-Donnersperg) played the record at the store and were amused about it, just laughing about the music, whereas I was astonished about such crazy music never heard before.
For Atemketten 20.8, the tapes consists loops with clarinet, that reminds of male voice, alike cut-ups, in repetition, and the tapes where used as background for some clarinet play in the vein of Jim Sauter, but one mostly focusses on this weird and pregnant background. For Atemkreis, he used smooth tape like floating background with few saxophone play, droning music. Atemketten 20.8 is the music, that made me buy the record. Each cover of the LP is unique. If you try to find some information on Markus Eichenberger you will find a clarinet player named Markus Eichenberger at world wide web, but if you write to him, it is possible, he returns a letter, that he is often mixed up with another Markus Eichenberger, he does not know. Possibly he wants no contacts, possibly there is someone else, who made this phantastic LP.
Markus Eichenberger : Atemketten 20.8/Atemkreis (Unit Records)
Enregistrement : 1986.
Kommissar Hjuler © Le son du grisli
Kommissar Hjuler est artiste et musicien. Il a récemment vu le label Intransitive publier Asylum Lunaticum, compilation des travaux de musique expérimentale qu'il mène en compagnie de sa compagne Mama Bär.
Fritz Hauser : Sounding Stones (Therme Vals, 2000)
L’architecte Peter Zumthor, lauréat cette année du prix Pritzker, écrivait dans Penser l’architecture : « Une bonne architecture doit accueillir l’être humain, le laisser vivre et habiter ». Le percussionniste Fritz Hauser, de savoir habiter l'œuvre d'un architecte pour qui la musique compte : preuve donnée sur Sounding Stones, enregistrement sur lequel Hauser joue de pierres musicales élaborées par Arthur Schneiter au sein des Thermes de Valms, création de Zumthor.
De ses instruments originaux, Hauser sort un lot de rumeurs qui l’environnent bientôt : nappes sonores et notes égarées se rapprochent puis progressent de concert, lentement. Tandis qu’ici s’impose un drone léger, s’immisce ailleurs un rythme refusant qu’on le suive et qui s’échappe bientôt, loin d’une musique de traîne qui, partout ailleurs, bat la mesure à coups d’intérêts mélodiques ravissants. Sculptures, clochettes, cymbales et toms, aux murmures amassés sur cadences diverses, les Thermes de Vals pour tout réceptacle : haute musique d’ameublement installée en architecture d’exception.
Fritz Hauser : Sounding Stones (Therme Vals)
Enregistrement : 2000. Edition : 2000.
CD : 01/ Sounding Stones 1 02/ Sounding Stones 2 03/ Sounding Stones 3 04/ Sounding Stones 4 05/ Sounding Stones 5
Guillaume Belhomme © Le son du grisli
Rashied Ali (1935-2009) par Gunter Hampel
Rashied Ali grapped my arm and knocked his head over to follow him. I was sitting at Greene Street in his studio-loft-basement with Jeanne Lee, and were checking tracks on which Jeanne and two other singers had performed with Rashied. Sounded great.
Rashied led me upstairs : “I want you to check something“ and… I was to sit in a rehearsal room, an empty room, and some sort of stage, but the curtain was closed. He was like a little boy, wanting to show me his toys. I was supposed to guess. He had gotten one of those new electronic drums and he had tuned it and was pretty shure, I wouldn‘t guess if he was playing his regular drum set or if it was the electronic one. So I was in this room in new york, in Soho and had Rashied playing a special drumsolo, actually two drumsoli playing for my ears, only (and unfortunately, I didn‘t have any device on me, like a recorder or a carry with me small enough video recorder. I guess this was before 1985, now – 2009 – on the day when I got an e-mail from John from New York, I am sitting in Berlin, Germany, where I write this, saying that Rashied passed away today). Because the one hour I spent with Rashied were one of these moments which make my “gunter life” rich , with special communications between other artist who obviously love my way of playing, because they open up to my like you open up to a friend, here the word brother would probably more meeting the occasion… But what Rashied played in his first solo for me — remember, we do not see each other, he was behind the curtain to let me guess which drumset he was playing – was the mightiest drumsolo I had heard of him, and believe me, I LOVE Coltrane’s duo recording, where Rashied and Trane were together ; his voice pulled me out of the visions in my head and ears : “Gunter ? You are still here ? Now I play the other drumset”.
From the moment he started “the other“ drumset, I heard it was the electronic drumset, but there was no room to even keep any notice about it, it was RASHIED who played that drumset and I concentrated on WHAT he played, and that wasn‘t any less, from what came out of his acoustic drumset. All I wanted was SEE him play, so I pulled the curtain away, and luckily he continued playing, because we understood each other, with our feelings. Then, he got up and gave me his sticks : “Let‘s have a drum battle“, went over to the accoustic… And here we went. Playing for an hour or so, we took off, I wasn‘t the only one who had fun, it was one of those BRIGHT MOMENTS.
To play with him, was so easy, We didn`t battle, we played with each other, we had calls and answers, rhythm and free playing, painted sounds, percussion waves on cymbals, one played a rhythm, the other soloed over it, in other words, being musicians we had our talk. Transcontinental and transcultural exchange. No competition. A celebration. Having fun with each other with what we can do best : create sounds. When Jeanne joined the two of us we had become friends and wanted to play together and start with a duo, with the vibes an bassclarinet and flute, and then with Jeanne and… Musicians life-moving and thinking we can do all at the same time, too busy, now we cannot document our spirits, Rashied, but you‘ll live on in the cathedral of my heart, i‘ll burn a candle there for you.
Gunter Hampel © My Gunter Life / Le son du grisli
Archives Rashied Ali
Archives Gunter Hampel
Flaming Tunes : Flaming Tunes (Life and Living, 2009)
This Heat est l'un de mes groupes préférés de tous les temps. Seulement une poignée d'albums, tous géniaux, et le frisson assuré à chaque écoute de l'album bleu. Tout était là : un sens rythmique incomparable (on peut souvent danser sur leur musique), un sens mélodique inoui (et des voix à tomber par terre) et un travail sur le son en avance de 20 ans sur son époque.
J'avais écouté les autres disques sortis de ce vivier après la dissolution du groupe au début des années 1980 : Camberwell Now (le projet du batteur Charles Hayward) et Lifetones (le projet dub de Charles Bullen) mais je n'ai découvert que tout récemment l'existence d'une cassette post This Heat de Gareth Williams, maintenant rééditée en CD. Autant le dire tout de suite : cette réédition est un repiquage de la cassette : le son est plus low tech que low fi. Mais peu importe. Il n'y a pas eu de nettoyage dénaturant le propos... On y entend des boites à rythmes empruntées à Scritti Politi, des harmonies vocales qui évoquent This Heat, bien sûr, mais aussi souvent le groupe Tuxedomoon. Le disque a semble-t-il été composé suite au départ de Gareth Wiliams en Inde, après avoir quitté le groupe. Cet album a mis 25 ans à être réellement édité et distribué. Depuis que j'ai reçu le CD par la poste (le lendemain de mon paiement par paypal via le site myspace du groupe), je n'écoute pratiquement que ça. Magnifique !
Flaming Tunes : Flaming Tunes (Life and Living / Orkhêstra International)
Enregistrement : 1985. Edition : 2009.
CD : 01/ Another Flaming Tune 02/ Beguiling the Hours 03/ The Best Weapon 04/ A to B 05/ Breast Stroke 06/ Raindrops from Heaven 07/ Restless Mind 08/ B to A 09/ Golden Age 10/ It's Madness 11/ Generous Moon
David Fenech © Le son du grisli
David Fenech est musicien. Polochon Battle est à ce jour son dernier enregistrement paru.
Paul Rogers : An Invitation (Rare Music, 2009)
I have played with Paul Rogers for 30 years and in any situation he always gives 100% of himself. He is a supreme bassist, with astonishing technical abilities and great musical vision. He digs down deep to try to find new things, which in my mind means it's spiritual music because isn't that what spiritual means, digging deep to find answers. This solo cd for me shows all of this and is presented in 10 tracks with Paul improvising over his own compositions. Because he is happy in most any musical situation like straight jazz to free abstraction you can hear his love of both melody, rhythmic and harmonic freedom. This is a very powerful cd yet it is easy to concentrate on. This is why I have chosen this record as one of my all time favourites.
Paul Rogers : An Invitation (Rare Music)
Edition : 2009.
CD : 01/ An Invitation 02/ What Will You Be 03/ Flight 04/ Ebbing 05/ Dove 06/ Fountain 07/ Elevation 08/ The Trip 09/ Do 10/ Gibrache
Paul Dunmall © Le son du grisli
Singulier saxophoniste britannique, Paul Dunmall a récemment été entendu auprès d'Andrew Cyrille et Henry Grimes sur Opus de Life.
