glotosifres |cs048

Przyplywajace i odplywajace fale nut wydobytych z preparowanego fortepianu, gesta, lecz niepodporzadkowana jednemu rytmowi gra perkusisty oraz przenikniete neuroza zawodzenie saksofonu to skladniki, z których zbudowano trzy nagrania wypelniajace te znakomita, acz stanowczo zbyt krótka plyte. Muzyka wykonywana przez trio smialo operuje niezwyklymi barwami, nie bojac sie pozornej surowosci, brzydoty i szorstkosci rozszerzonych technik artykulacji, nie stroni jednoczesnie od szlachetnego piekna klasycznych rozwiazan. W sposób prawie doskonaly zespoleni w calosc, Werchowska, Pontevia i Boubaker stworzyli dwadziescia dziewiec minut swobodnej improwizacji, zagranej z precyzja i konsekwencja wspólczesnej kameralistyki oraz iscie free-jazzowym ogniem. "Glotosifres", choc zawieraja elementy wszystkich wymienionych przed chwila stylistyk, nie sa dzielem eklektycznym, lecz raczej synkretycznym. Umiejetnosc dokonania takowej syntezy nie dziwilaby u starych wyjadaczy, ale przeciez Werchowska, Pontevia i Boubaker sa dopiero na poczatku swej muzycznej drogi. Tym bardziej zasluguja wiec na pochwale i na uwazne sledzenie ich dalszej kariery. Tadeusz Kosiek (Gaz-Eta)

This piano/drums/alto sax trio is both one of the shortest (about 29 minutes) and less "silent" releases by Ernesto Rodrigues' label. Innocent in its abandon of rules, yet pretty dirty as far as sonic articulation is concerned, "Glotosifres"' palette ranges from not-too-clangorous free jazz to "percussive strumming" - not only on drums but on piano's strings and various parts, too - which made me think about Z'ev during his most "tranquil" moments. No hint to any kind of phraseology, only a tendency to rumble and scrape, very far from sheer droning but tending to rawer structures of disorder and pre-chaos. Underneath a thick cloth of primordial instinct lies some measure of elaboration that nevertheless remains in the obscurity of a big uncontrollable buzz; like a blurred glimpse of who-knows-what, in the space of a moment this music has come and gone. Massimo Ricci (Touching Extremes)

The for me unknown Nush Werchowska (piano), Mathias Pontevia (drums) and Heddy Boubaker (alto saxophone) have three pieces, both from concerts from 2004 and they operate on similar lines as the previous release by Ulher c.s.: much regular free playing on their instruments, which is alright for what it is. Frans de Waard (Vital)

"Glotosifres" is a quite short cd (three tracks, 28 minutes), and also one of the very few, in the Creative Sources catalogue, which could be still defined "free jazz" without much forcing. Nush Werchowska (piano), Mathias Pontevia (drums) and Heddy Boubaker (alto sax), here offering two live performances recorded in July and December 2004, are evidently a close and well assorted trio. Listen to the restrained storm of "Bribes", for example, with a climax of bowed piano chords, hysteric sax and menacing percussions, or to the suspension and dilatation of "Spires". Particularly appreciable is the mastering work, by Boubaker himself, which underlines Pontevia's inventive drumming. Eugenio Maggi (Chain DLK)

29 minutes is a bit slight for an album – across the electric fence in Popland that would count as a single – but there's a lot of information to digest in these three pieces recorded in July and December 2004 featuring pianist Werchowska, percussionist Pontévia and saxophonist Boubaker (normally they go under the name Trio Pakos, but not here apparently). Nush (it's "Nusch" on the Creative Sources site but I take it that's a mistake) Werchowska is at her best when scrabbling round inside the instrument, and Pontévia and Boubaker follow her into some very strange undergrowth on the opening "Bribes" – in French that means "bits" or "extracts", by the way, not payment for services rendered – but when actual notes come into play, i.e. when Werchowska actually engages with the keyboard, on "Spires", things get a little muddy underfoot. One senses pitch isn't all that important to these guys, and thankfully the closing "Mascaret" takes us back out into the windswept wilderness. It's uncompromising stuff, and proof that there are strange and dangerous things going on in the idyllic South of France. If you don't understand the album title, by the way, go Google and, erm, practice your French. Oh yes, Boubaker and trumpeter Sébastien Cirotteau, who recorded the three pieces here, also have a fine duo release, Vortex, for mp3 download at www.stasisfield.com. Go! Dan Warburton (Paris Transatlantic)

Glotosifres (CS 048) is a brief recording (three improvisations in under 30 minutes) played by pianist Nush Werchowska, alto saxophonist Heddy Boubaker, and drummer Mathias Pontevia. I was unfamiliar with all these musicians, but found my first encounter with their music pretty enjoyable. It is relatively high energy, dense music for this label. Werchowska’s prepared piano is a focus for much of the time, as on “Bribes” the extensions and manipulations of the instrument get quite intense. Boubaker’s palette seems narrower, residing mainly in conventional-sounding overblowing techniques (though some pleasant flutter-tonguing occasionally surfaces). Pontevia knows how to stir the pot and, while he’s not usually at the center of the music’s movement, his use of dynamics often directs things and pushes the other two players in more heated directions. When Werchowska plays conventionally, the feel is not unlike an early Cecil Taylor improvisation (that is, if Cecil were accompanied by a post-Lovens percussionist and a post-Jack Wright altoist). But on the fine “Spires”, the players transform themselves unexpectedly—it’s almost like hearing flame die out—and go reductionist for the duration. Jason Bivins (One Final Note)

Whether it started with John Coltrane’s hour-long saxophone workouts in the 1960s, those extended Norman Granz-organized jam sessions in the 1940s, or, to go back further, classic jazzers taking chorus after chorus on standards like “When the Saints Go Marching In”, brevity has never been considered a virtue in improvised music. This tendency was exacerbated with the invention of the lengthier and more expensive CD, as musicians previously able to say all they had to in 40-minute wedges, suddenly felt they had to lengthen each track to give the cost-conscious consumer an hour or more of music. Luckily that fad has lessened over the past couple of years, with astute performers acknowledging that quality wins out over quantity. These sessions by similarly constituted trios of musicians who live in different cities on either side of the English Channel provide the truth of that assessment.
[…] Even more condensed, the three improvisations created by the cooperative trio of Paris-based pianist Nush Werchowska, drummer Mathias Pontèvia of Bordeaux, and alto saxophonist Hedy Boubaker, who lives near Toulouse, clock in at an economical two seconds less than 29 minutes. The playing standards of Werchowska, Pontèvia, and Boubaker’s Glotosifres (Creative Sources) and It’s morning are at such a high level however, that no listener should feel shortchanged by either set.
For instance, all of the French CD is dedicated to the non-idiomatic timbres that can be expressed with these traditional instruments, not unlike the similarly consisted trio of pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach, reedist Evan Parker, and percussionist Paul Lovens. Even more so than Lovens, however, Pontèvia, who plays a self-constructed drum kit, and has worked with well-known Gallic improv explorers like reedist Daunik Lazro and pianist Frédéric Blondy, doesn’t hit or pummel his drums as much as sweep and scrape different parts of it. Werchowska, a member of the Machine Gun rock band with Pontèvia, stops and scours the piano action with preparations as often as she extracts contrasting dynamics from the keys. And Boubaker, who plays with dancers as well as fellow sound experimenters such as saxophonist Michel Doneda and bassist Barre Phillips, peeps, squeaks, and vibrates timbres and counter-tones from his instrument.
Although Glotosifres’ three instant compositions were recorded in two different locations five months apart, they fit together without a glitch. During the course of the performances Pontèvia concentrates on irregular pulsations, concentrated rumbles, percussive slaps and cymbal pops. Frequently as well, he seems to be swiffering his drum tops. For his part, Boubaker whistles hazily, peeps and whines irregularly, and while leaving proper pauses during his solos, vibrates subterranean growls or muffles abstract trills.
Werchowska is a revelation. Often double-stopping or dynamically jumping across the keys in a Cecil Taylor-like fashion, she also strums heavy-handed cadences in response to Boubaker’s accelerating, irregular split tones. Triggering internal sonics as if she was back at the electric keyboard of her rock band, Werchowska uses paper, cardboard or a metal tool on the acoustic piano’s internal wound strings to produce deadened cadences at the same time as she voices the external keys. With the three players’ distinctive output as often smoothed as ruffled, an organic synergy is present throughout.
Precisely the proper length for what they set out to accomplish, this CD confirm that a succinct improvised session—or two for that matter—is more stimulating than one that is drawn-out for no good reason. Ken Waxman (One Final Note)

Voilà donc une publication, sinon grand public, du moins sur un label qui assure une certaine visibilité au travail étonnamment court (29 minutes), enregistré par Sebastien Cirotteau. La formation est assez classique à ceci prés qu’il y manque une contrebasse. Le premier morceau, Bribes, s’emploie d’abord à gagner de l’épaisseur par une courbe ascendante de l’intensité et du volume, et jouit durant les cinq minutes qui suivent du plateau sonore conquis. Dans Spires, Nush Werchowska, délaissant l’intérieur du piano pour le clavier, installe une ambiance d’inquiétante errance puis le morceau se dirige vers une sorte d’art pauvre fait de bruits sans noblesse, en contraste avec l’ampleur des accords précédents et qui entretiennent alors une tension d’autant plus forte que la cause en échappe.
Mascaret enfin, en public au festival de Zieu-M-Zic de 2004 fait entendre un Heddy Boubaker beaucoup plus présent avec des sonorités ferroviaires, un espace de résonance largement ouvert et retourné en tous sens par le piano et la batterie. L’alto de Heddy Boubaker prend dans ce troisième morceau une qualité vocale en volant à la parole des images de significations (pouvez-vous imaginer ça ?) pendant qu’on entend en arrière quelques échos de voix féminine, celle de Nush Werchowska certainement. Noël Tachet (ImproJazz)

A short record (29 minutes) that passed me by upon its release in the mid-2000s. Two musicians I didn’t know (Nush Werchowska, piano, and Mathias Pontevia, drums), and another I know little about (sax player Heddy Boubaker). Glotosifres culls two free improvisation sessions from 2004. It’s sophisticated music, dense with getting noisy, reduced with being reductive. A honest session where the musicians are searching more than finding (and that’s better than having found before starting), and where the feeling of wonder stemming from that search is successfully communicated to the listener. François Couture (Monsieur Délire)