La Piece, and: rouge gris bruit, and: Phosphor (review)

The independent French record label Potlatch offers a growing catalogue of recordings by musicians and sound artists specializing in free improvisation including the three discs herein reviewed, as well as discs by Michel Doneda, Derek Bailey, Steve Lacy, Joëlle Léandre, Fred Van Hove, and Evan Parker. La Pièce, rouge gris bruit, and Phosphor provide a dizzying variety of improvisational approaches, but are allied by the simple act of documenting the sonic riches cooked up by experienced improvising musicians interacting and reacting with acoustic and electroacoustic instruments.

As indicated on the Potlatch Web site (www.potlatch.fr), the concept of "potlatch," prevalent in the ceremonial activities of many North American aboriginal communities, is manifest here as the give-and-take inherent in the improvisational act, "the obligation to give, to receive, and then to give again."

The duo Kristoff K. Roll (Jean Christophe Camps and Carole Rieussec) are well known for their finely crafted audio works such as Corazón Road and Les Travailleurs de la nuit à l'amie des objets. These earlier productions combine on-location sound diaries and subsequent studio refinement with attention to political and sociological implications of their carefully chosen recordings. In La Pièce (Potlatch P 199, 1999), they are joined by clarinetist Xavier Charles for seven in-studio improvisations. Mr. Camps and Ms. Rieussec transform, fragment, distort, and at times lend gentle support to Mr. Charles's imaginative clarinet peregrinations while producing a flow of additional sound events and materials, from raucous analog synthesis timbres and waves of noise to the barely audible chattering and pulsing of water, birds, wind, and trees. The live clarinet is considered here as a resource equivalent to all of the other sounds at hand, to be manipulated, teased, and cajoled into new shapes and spaces. The duo's prowess in integrating the live performer with their electroacoustic modifications and interventions produces a highly successful result verging on the organic.

Mr. Camp and Ms. Rieussec make effective choices of sound material, audio processing, and panoramic design throughout these extemporizations which last from three to fifteen minutes in duration and sport such titles as Le couloir sans papier peint [The hallway without wallpaper] and Le petit salon moutarde [The little mustard room]. The title of the disc, La Pièce, provides an underlying concept for this recording, a series of unique and often intimate "rooms" that we are invited to enter and explore.

Especially successful is the temporal shaping of these improvisations ranging from the haunting drones and seemingly timeless clarinet oscillations of Grange nocturne [Nocturnal Barn] and the brief onslaught of rumblings and angular clarinet lines of Lavomatic (with its barking dog coda!), to the considerably longer and more variable canvas of Casco de hacienda. Xavier Charles's clarinet work enters into partnership with Kristoff K. Roll's sound world with gusto and obvious relish for the opportunity to demonstrate the extended techniques and sounds that the instrument can provide, from chirps and squeals, buzzes and whining, to velvet cooing and ethereal high-register drones.

La Pièce is more than simply an enjoyable listening experience. It also provides a glimpse of the current evolving practice of many sound artists and musicians, wherein the divisions between acoustic and electroacoustic, and the compensating strategies that are by necessity entertained in this mixture, are abolished in favor of an integrated instrumentarium.

rouge gris bruit [red gray noise] (Potlatch P401, 2001) brings together pianist Sophie Agnel and sound...