Alessandro Bosetti - Her Name

Crouton
No. 35

“Her Name” is a collection of seven songs by Alessandro Bosetti and, no question about it, they’re songs. As a general rule, it sounds like he recorded conversations of people he met while touring through Europe, Asia and the US, transcribed the conversations, wrote musical lines that closely paralleled the rhythms and cadences of the speech, and then set these lines (sung/spoken by himself and others) into various beds of improvised and written music. The results may require a listen or two for one to get comfortable in this halfway world, a few moments to gets one’s footing, but once acclimated this is a beguiling little offering.

Aside from his voice, Bosetti brings multiple instruments into play including soprano saxophone, guitars, electric and acoustic piano, cello, harmonium, organ and various electronics. Many other voices are heard in a variety of languages and on a few tracks he’s assisted by Koen Nutters (bass), Ernst Karel (trumpet) and Morten J. Olsen (drums) but one gets a strong sense of a solo effort here, of Bosetti gathering, reorganizing and emitting the sounds encountered. Sometimes the pieces are strongly reminiscent of past work by earlier composer/performers investigating the art song format. The title track, for instance, with its vaguely Rypdalian guitar overtones and descending piano chords, reminded me a lot of Michael Mantler’s work from the 70s with Jack Bruce. Here, as elsewhere, Bosetti double-tracks the voice, speaking the same material in very slightly different timing and intonation, an attractive effect. “Her Face”, on the other hand, awash in multi-tracked, feminine lamentations and deep, bowed strings, summons up memories of Julie Tippetts’ “Sunset Glow”. Both, however, substantially flesh out those associations (likely entirely in my mind, not Bosetti’s, anyway), especially with the embedding of these elements into cradles of electronics and reed respirations. In a subtle change of pace, Karel’s muted trumpet surfaces on “Mask”, dancing around music that makes loose allusions to Brazil.

“Ivory Coast” is a fascinating, humorous work, beginning with bell-like percussion and softly plucked electric guitar, before a vocal/soprano line, almost sounding like a backwards recording, recounts an off-the-wall mini-story involving a cousin who was a comedian in the Ivory Coast. These lines reappear in various guises throughout the first part of the piece, bobbing into view amidst the plucked and struck flotsam before the instruments take over and provide several delightful minutes of giddy, prickly sounds. “Idiot”’s line, Italian male voice and soprano sax, inevitably recalls Lacy before morphing into, of all things, a gentle bass-propelled swatch of tropicalia, replete with laughing vocals chanting, “chi-ri-ri” over small explosive piano kerplunks and shortwave transmissions. Excellent song! “It’s Me” is another really intriguing idea, contrasting harsh, guttural shouts, male and female, with a plaintive, hoarse vocal by Bosetti, accompanied by tentative acoustic guitar strums, as though he’s practicing next door to some noisy neighbors. The disc closes with perhaps my favorite piece, a collection of apparently contrary declarations in Italian, “Fumatore non fumatore”, including “non vegetariano, vegetariano”, “anarchico, liberale moderato” and “compositore, improvisatore”, until the final word, “Io” (I), clearly summing up the intricacies and complexities of this unusual, ultimately very rewarding recording.

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