Michel Doneda - Solo las Planques

Sillon 1

I haven’t kept up too well, I’m afraid, with Michel Doneda’s releases in the last several years (this was recorded in July 2004) so I’m not at all sure where this one fits, how different it is from its predecessors, etc., but whatever those cases, it’s a damn fine recording.

Seven tracks that work rather well as a suite. The first two find Doneda in sandblasting mode, ferocious squalls of hyper-compressed air and spittle scouring the atmosphere of the room (and, one imagines, the walls and floor as well). Appearing to draw violent breaths both in and out, Doneda abrades the space mercilessly. At the advent of cut 3, we’re allowed something of a breather, as hollow tones begin to permeate the raw spew, lending a bit of weight to the exhaust. The following section sounds positively mellow by contrast, haunting moans emerging from the haze which then mutate into a penetrating, vibrato-laden cry, phasing in and out with airy squeaks, tympanum-rattling buzzes and silences. The penultimate piece returns, in a way, to the territory of the first two but with the breath-tones taking on a more whistling character and, most excellently, the addition of what sound like muffled explosions of air, perhaps directly from the mouthpiece. It’s a wonderful sound conglomeration; for a moment I thought I was hearing Doneda’s footsteps irregularly pacing about the room. This track, on its own, is a marvelous piece of music, my favorite several minutes of the disc. “Solo las Planques” closes with a relatively meditative run of flutters atop low, penetrating slabs of soprano before gently expiring.

Excellent work; check it out.

http://www.sofamusic.no/sillon/