Charlie Charlie
La Respiration des Saintes
Antboy
06
I don’t know who Charlie Charlie are. Two people, as near as I can ascertain, but googling revealed no more. That’s OK. It’s not too important and I’m sure Will or someone will clue me in. Worth knowing is this fine, dirty, scuffling 3” disc, all 13:45 of it. “La Respiration des Saintes” (lovely title) is an assemblage of tapes, radio transmissions, rude noises large and small, tied together in a blocky fashion that has a kind of slithery logic, though one all but impossible to explain or analyze. The voices, generally faint and difficult to understand, act as a kind of string on which everything else is glued; noise composition as rock candy.
It begins with one of those disembodied voices though that’s swiftly buried under an avalanche of toppled objects, beaten metal and tinny drones. Just as quickly, the cacophony is sucked up into silence, several of the transmissions left hovering, diaphanous, in its wake. More metal, now paired with static glitches, some noise that might have emanated from a guitar, all lurching forward, occasionally even hurtling (the metallic beating from the initial section poking its head up now and then, imparting a hint of rhythm), until it smacks up against the next roadblock. The ghost voices are still there, along with bowed metal, other detritus. There’s a kind of Beckettian plodding onward, stop and start, impelled forward in spurts, pausing for breath, back at it. Listened to closely, “La Respiration des Saintes” is bracingly exhausting, a mini-marathon through an eerie, desiccated territory, ending in a harsh place.
An excellent recording, highly recommended, especially for those who enjoyed Guthrie’s “Spear”.
Posted by Brian Olewnick on July 25, 2005 8:17 AMIn the duo Charlie Charlie with French sound artist and partner Erell Latimier, Guthrie expands his palette with the addition of mini speakers and microphones. Guthrie and Latimier will perform in solo mode when in Adelaide, as well as together as Charlie Charlie.
-db magazine profile.
This one is coming in the mail.
A few elements in your review caused me to think Will was in Charlie Charlie, Brian. I subsequently e-mailed Will with that very question.
Specifically, your description of '...all lurching forward, occasionally even hurtling...until it smacks up against the next roadblock' caused me to think of Spear.
Posted by: jesse at September 7, 2005 11:28 PMErell Latimier belongs to this new and very active french generation (Alexandre Bellenger, Quentin Dubost, Etienne Foyer, Arnaud Rivière, Christine Sehnaoui, Sharif Sehnaoui, and many others...)
Till 2003, she was working at Les Instants Chavires. At the same time, she also organized with Olivier Brisson (Vert Pituite) a lot of concerts in Paris in other venues.
She also manages a magazine called "Phrenesie".
She now lives in Nantes and works with local musicians from Apo33 : Julien Ottavi, etc...
And she performs with Will Guthrie in this Charlie Charlie duo. She plays dictaphones, walkmans, recordings of text and concrete sound.
Unfortunately I haven't listened to this one yet.
Aha! That wily Will.
Posted by: Brian Olewnick at September 8, 2005 6:00 AM"Christine Sehnaoui, Sharif Sehnaoui"
These two musicians are playing a concert here in Philly with Gene Coleman next month. I know nothing about them though, except a passing positive remark from Jack Wright, who brought this to my attention. How worth checking out might this be? I would probably try to go one way or another, but I am curious and could possibly benefit from some well-placed hype from you guys given my tendency to skip many great gigs...
Christine plays alto saxophone and Sharif tabletop guitar. They have some appearances on V-A cds, but I don't remember which ones. And they surely have some on Creative Sources.
They actually deserve a listening.
Sharif organizes a festival every summer with trumpetist Mazen Kerbaj in Beirut.
http://www.irtijal.com/TheMill/home.html
I just received this e-mail about Kerbaj and the Sehnaouis US tour.
ROUBA3I USA TOUR
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ROUBA3I7
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Wed 28 Sept @ Wesleyan University, Connecticut
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mazen kerbaj - trumpet
sharif sehnaoui - guitar
christine sehnaoui : alto sax
andrew drury : percussion
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ROUBA3I7.2
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Thu 29 Sept @ Hampshire College
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mazen kerbaj - trumpet
sharif sehnaoui - guitar
christine sehnaoui : alto sax
andrew drury : percussion
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ROUBA3I8
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Fri 30 sept @ "KKC" series - B.P.M 237 Kent Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY
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mazen kerbaj - trumpet
sharif sehnaoui - guitar
christine sehnaoui : alto sax
tatsuya nakatani : percussion
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info on ROUBA3I @ www.almaslakh.org
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