Potlatch
P205
For this recording, John Butcher, Xavier Charles and Axel Dorner (I believe the group name, if it wasn’t such for their first disc, is now “The Contest of Pleasures”) recorded numerous hours of improvisation in and around Albi-Tarn, a town nestled in the Pyrenees, in various environments from chapels to music studios. The results were then processed by the musicians, one track each by Dorner and Charles, two by Butcher and, for good measure, another by sound engineer Laurent Sassi. Butcher, in his liners, states that for him the outcomes generally still sound like group improvisation and I think that’s by and large true although, if one tilts one’s ears in a certain manner, the pieces can almost as easily be heard as collages.
In any case, the music reads very well. It’s far louder and more strident than the previous disc, the horns rarely shying away from entering banshee territory; angry banshees at that. Charles’ “Les Oignons” (the works once again deriving their titles from the gustatory world) begins with a surprisingly “normal” muted trumpet tone which morphs into an array of brass sounds very reminiscent of the general sound of Xenakis’ “Pithoprakta”. I realize I referenced the late composer in another recent review and maybe it’s a connective phase I’m going through a la Eno of a couple years back, but much of this piece, and a fine one it is, carried Xenakis-like echoes for me. It’s chock full of fascinating sounds and sonic contrasts, laid out more episodically than depth-wise, but compelling throughout including a brief suspension of musician activities near the end when you can pick-up automotive sounds outside the performing space. The first of the two Butcher concoctions, “Garden Cress”, initially travels through lower volume breaths and sputters but soon catapults up into an ear-rending cascade of wind-driven shrieks, subsiding ultimately into a bed of key-clicks and glottal pops. Maybe more than any other track, this is the one that, had I been informed it was a pure, real-time improvisation, I wouldn’t have batted a lash. His next, “Winter Squash”, has some deliciously layered dronage, overtones abounding, veering more often into harsher sound areas than sonant ones; again, I hear tinges of Xenakis wind ensembles. Here, as elsewhere, it took this listener several exposures before the music began to sink in and really cohere. It helped, I found, to listen on headphones to more fully appreciate the spatial separation, presumably an element of the post-production processing, although the notes also refer to elaborate placement of microphones so, who knows? Dorner’s “Karfiol” (I looked it up—cauliflower) kind of picks up where “Winter Squash” left off, though upping the harshness factor and reverting to the episodic character of Charles’ piece. This is the one track that I couldn’t quite get a handle on, that never amounted to more than the sum of its parts for me.
Sassi’s contribution, “Les cornichons”, is something of a wild card, the most overtly electronic of the bunch, utilizing clear samples and phased repetitions at the start. He constructs a real nice, forceful track, choosing an intriguing sound palette, varying the amplitude in interesting ways (including forays into extreme overtones) and, generally, creating a complex, difficult-to-dissect composition, probably my favorite piece on the disc, a mild surprise considering the caliber of the three principals.
Some good, tough music to munch on here, perhaps more acidic and chewy than you might expect.
Posted by Brian Olewnick on April 30, 2006 1:24 PMGood review, B. I do have one question, which may or may not be kinda dumb, but I'll ask anyway...
"The results were then processed by the musicians..."
I always see this "processed" word pop in in seemingly similar context usually referring to some post-recording "stuff" done to the the raw recording. I still am not sure I have a good grasp of what the "process" stuff means in this context.
Posted by: SOZ at April 30, 2006 3:58 PMOZ, no real details were provided but it's safe to say some collaging was in effect. I'd assume each musician had access to the entirety of what was recorded live then mixed 'n' matched as they saw fit. Maybe Jacques could shed further light.
Posted by: Brian Olewnick at April 30, 2006 5:33 PMThank you Brian for this review.
About this "process" :
Yes they recorded a lot. Several hours during 3 days. Sound engineer Laurent Sassi used different techniques of recordings. He knows well this area of music; for instance, he already worked with Noetinger/Marchetti/Pallandre/Pichelin 'quintet avant' released on Mego (Floppy nails, lp).
After that, every musician could work on the multi tracked tapes and work on differnet parameters. And each one (including Laurent Sassi) built pieces from all this material. It's much edited. Yes it can be considered as 'collages'. Sometimes, there can even be short superimpositions. There also can be some similar passages from one piece to another, but with a quite different treatment in the sounds.
These processes give also a perspective on each musician. Some focusing more on sound texture (Butcher, Sassi) and others (Charles, Dörner) focusing more on structure. But I maybe wrong :-)
Posted by: Jacques Oger at May 1, 2006 1:52 AM
Hello all,
Jaques Oger asked me to comment.
For my pieces, I only edited parts together, linearly. In Garden Cress from a single acoustic situation - and in Winter Squash from two acoustic situations, choosing by the pitch relationships between them. There was no overlaying or processing. I wanted them to sound "played".
I think Laurent is the only one who did some processing, like the short loop at the start of Les Cornichons.
Posted by: John Butcher at May 1, 2006 2:55 AMI wish I'd been able to read John's comments about this disc prior to reviewing it - very favourably indeed, by the way - for The Wire. Not that my ears led me into error, but I could then have written a slightly more detailed review.
Posted by: Brian Marley at May 1, 2006 3:42 AMHey, Brian. You realize you've recently morphed from everything is Eno to everything is Xenakis?
Posted by: walto at May 1, 2006 4:34 AMHey, I owned up to that! Worse, I think I confused 'Pithoprakta' with 'Akrata' (I hate when that happens). At work now, so I can't really check but I was thinking of the one with the brass attacks.
Posted by: Brian Olewnick at May 1, 2006 5:30 AMHi Brian
Just some thoughts: if you really wished you would have know more details, you should have just asked the people involved........
Why are all the reviewers in general so scared of doing that?
It's so easy to do, it would avoid so many misunderstandings, faulty reviews etc, and most musicians would be very willing to answer any questions "asap!"...
best
Cor Fuhler
Hi Cor,
Actually, I'm not overly interested in a lot of the details, really. I'm far more interested in simply how the music works, to my ears. I may or may not mention them in passing in an informational way and here, as is often the case, I'm content to go with what's been provided to that end on the disc or, sometimes, the accompanying PR material. Once in a while, something bugs me that I think I should know more about and, in those cases, I have no problem contacting the musician or producer involved. In this case, it didn't strike me as crucially important though perhaps some listeners (and musicians!) may differ.
But I really would prefer listening to most music "naively"--rarely possible, of course! I was pleased to see, from John's comments above, that I was reasonably close in how I heard the pieces he worked on, but if it had somehow turned out to be the opposite, hey, that's the way it goes. Wouldn't make much difference in how much I enjoyed the work. I hope that comes through in the write-ups.
Hoping to catch one of your gigs here next week!
Posted by: Brian Olewnick at May 1, 2006 1:20 PMpretty sure Cor was talking to Mr. Marley.
these got here today, Jacques! listening to it now...
Posted by: jon abbey at May 1, 2006 2:00 PMD'oh! Too many damn Brian's around here. Thought he was referring to my response to Sergio. Never mind.
Posted by: Brian Olewnick at May 1, 2006 3:08 PMToo many damn Brians around here? Then I'll bow out. But before I go I'll answer Cor's question:
"Just some thoughts: if you really wished you would have know more details, you should have just asked the people involved........"
The answer:
No time.
Things have been really hectic here at home, and I wasn't able to spend as much time listening to the CD and writing about it as I would have liked.
So it goes.
Posted by: Brian Marley at May 1, 2006 4:47 PM"Too many damn Brians around here? Then I'll bow out"
No! Please stay; you're a better Brian than I.
Besides it's generally interesting--to me anyway--to get a picture of the how's and why's of different writer's approaches, including intrusive life realities.
Posted by: Brian Olewnick at May 1, 2006 5:21 PMWeleathe Bwiann!
Posted by: djll at May 2, 2006 5:51 PMThis man commands a cwack legion! He wanks as high as any in Wome!
Posted by: Dan Warburton at May 2, 2006 9:36 PMQuack legion indeed.
I piss on your mockery.
But I piss pure champagne.
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