rocca |cs051

No mais recente lote de edições da Creative Sources Recordings, focado em artistas europeus da livre-improvisação, como David Chiesa, Birgit Ulher, Sascha Demand, Wade Matthews (norte-americano, há muito radicado em Espanha) e Ingar Zach, há um disco que chama particularmente a atenção: Rocca, o primeiro registo de um duo que já conta um bom par de actuações ao vivo em concertos e festivais, formado por Agnès Palier (voz) e Olivier Toulemonde (dispositivo electroacústico). Palier veio da canção francesa, do canto lírico e do jazz, para se consagrar por inteiro à improvisação não-idiomática. Toulemonde começou por tocar saxofone (o que ainda faz), mas deixou-se cativar pela maquinaria produtora de sons, que combina com objectos sortidos.
A dupla harmoniza as diferentes noções de tempo que os seus instrumentos lhes permitem ter, articulação permanente entre o som criado num ambiente virtual e o outro, produzido pelo corpo humano, em que fôlego e ressonância são vitais na produção sonora.
Em seis peças de exploração sonora ávida do instante e consciente da sua fragilidade, mistura-se electricidade metálica, percussão acústica, sopro, sons guturais, chios, gemidos, canto, onomatopeias, e o uso de uma considerável variedade de técnicas vocais avançadas, algumas das quais se podem ouvir em improvisadores como o britânico Phil Minton, por exemplo.
Saudam-se os belos momentos de contraste entre estas duas matrizes essenciais e o trabalho na procura da complementaridade - que nunca é garantida, mas conquistada a cada passo, segundo a segundo - a fusão de duas realidades, uma virtual e digital, outra física e orgânica, que os músicos fazem convergir e coabitar em baixo volume, facto que em nada faz diminuir a intensidade do resultado.
É claro que o encontro homem-máquina, no que à criação musical diz particularmente respeito, é tudo menos novo. Onde realmente desponta a novidade é na permanente tentativa de encontrar diferentes soluções de combinação sonora, que apenas a livre-improvisação permite. Nessa medida - e este é um dos pontos altos do disco - está-se constantemente a ser surpreendido pela inventividade e pela audácia deste par de improvisadores. Rocca foi gravado em Tossiat, França, a 17 e 18 de Fevereiro de 2005. Eduardo Chagas (Jazz e Arredores)

"Rocca" é mais um caso relativamente à propensão electroacústica desta etiqueta. A cantora Agnès Palier associa-se ao "dispositivo electroacústico" (regra geral a designação que aponta o recurso aos velhos Revox do concretismo) para fazer uma música que tem por um lado a guturalidade característica do vocalismo improvisado (Phil Minton) e do canto na "new music" (Joan La Barbara), ela que até veio da ópera e da "chanson française", e por outro a extrema variedade sónica proporcionada por uma banda magnética. Ou seja, combinam-se uma vertente física e outra maquinal, na prossecução de um antigo desejo: humanizar a tecnologia através da arte. Mesmo que tal passe pelo recurso a um aparelho em desuso (gravador de bobinas), ainda que o próprio facto seja já uma reacção contra a presente escalada tecnocrática. Muito bom. Rui Eduardo Paes (Ananana Newsletter)

Intrygujaca, acz nielatwa w odbiorze porcja nieidiomatycznej improwizacji. Duet Agnes Palier - glos oraz Olivier Toulemonde - "zestaw elektroakustyczny" anektuje dla siebie nisze zawarta gdzies pomiedzy swobodna improwizacja, sonorystycznymi poszukiwaniami i wokalna ekwilibrystyka, czyniac to z wielkim wyczuciem oraz pewna doza... niesmialosci. W ich muzyce nie ma bowiem miejsca na efektowne popisy, na ekstatyczne wzloty czy dramatyczne zmiany. Miast nich pojawia sie uwazne i zmudne budowanie muzycznego uniwersum - nadawanie formy, konstruowanie struktur, wzbogacanie faktury. Przyznaje, ze nie jestem milosnikiem sztuki wokalnej, szczególnie zas, gdy jest ona (nad)uzywana na niwie muzyki improwizowanej, ale "Rocca" ujela mnie swoja subtelnoscia oraz introwertyzmem. Noc wydaje sie byc wrecz wymarzona pora do sluchania tak delikatnej muzyki, która "dzieje sie" w niespiesznym wyciszeniu, pozwalajac sluchaczowi na kontemplowanie zarówno kazdego dzwieku z osobna, jak i sledzenie w jaki sposób skladane sa one w calosc. Byc moze propozycja francuskiego duetu nie jest czyms wyjatkowym - tego typu duety (laczace glos ludzki z elektronika) juz sie pojawialy - jednak na pewno w ich muzyce slychac cos osobistego, oryginalnego. Moze umiejetnosc tworzenia melodii (choc nie pojmowanych w sposób tradycyjny), moze unikanie rozwiazan krancowych... Trudno jest mi to wyjasnic.
Agnes Palier ma za soba okresy spiewu klasycznego, jazzowego oraz wykonywanie francuskich chansons. Od pewnego czasu poswiecila sie wylacznie sztuce wokalnej improwizacji, nie tylko jako wykonawca, ale tez nauczyciel. Nie bedac specjalista w tym zakresie, a wiec nie znajac fachowych terminów, napisze, ze do arsenalu uzytych przez nia na plycie "Rocca" srodków naleza: jeczenie, zawodzenie, wzdychanie, mlaskanie, poswistywanie, mruczenie, mamrotanie, cmokanie, ciamkanie, itp. Rezultat jest jednak duzo bardziej muzyczny, niz mozna by po przeczytaniu tych slów sadzic. Olivier Toulemonde od kilkunastu lat grywa muzyke improwizowana, zaczynal bodajze jako saksofonista, nie stroniac równiez od muzyki elektroakustycznej. Obecnie zazwyczaj posluguje sie róznymi zelektryfikowanymi obiektami. Co prawda nie wiem, czym jest uzywany przezen na tej plycie "electroacoustic set", lecz nie przeszkadza mi to pochwalic muzyka za umiejetne posluzenie sie nim, pozwalajace na uzyskanie bogatego i urozmaiconego brzmienia, obejmujacego dzwieki kojarzace sie z zestawem instrumentów perkusyjnych (werbel pocierany palka, talerz traktowany smyczkiem), zelektryfikowanym kontrabasem, szemrzacym saksofonem oraz analogowym syntezatorem.
Prawda zapewne jest bardziej prozaiczna i nie zdziwi mnie, jezeli sie okaze, ze jest to laptop lub jakies proste urzadzenie elektryczne. Jednak nie narzedzia sa wazne, lecz to, w jaki sposób muzycy sie nimi posluguja. Parze Palier-Toulemonde nie mozna niczego zarzucic, a wrecz przeciwnie - nalezy ja pochwalic. I ta konstatacja pozwole sobie ten przydlugi tekst zakonczyc. Tadeusz Kosiek (Gaz-Eta)

Singer Agnès Palier moved from classical music, chanson to jazz. In the last few years she concentrates on singing in a free improvised context, which is the case on this new CD 'Rocca'. For this occasion she is accompanied by Oliver Toulemonde on electroacoustic set. Toulemonde may be known as one of the founding members of the Collectif Ishtar.
Palier screams, yells, murmurs, growls, etc with her voice in a way one aspects from vocal artists like her. Toulemonde creates a great diversity of sounds, textures, etc. with his electro-acoustic set. The noises he produces are the perfect company for Palier's voice: the same in atmosphere, color, intensity, etc. I can't detect exactly what Toulemonde is doing on his so called 'electroacoustic set', but he seems to use all kind of objects. They are played and used by him in a very physical, lively and elegant way. Another reason that makes Toulemonde and Palier an interesting duo. Their improvisations play at at a highly abstract level. But on the other hand their sound poetry stays 'on the floor': its dramatic and dynamic, and very human. Their explorations evolve within a wide range of sounds and musical possibilities. I never had a dull moment with this one. Dolf Mulder (Vital)

[…] Un altro aspetto, ancora diverso dall’impiego insolito degli strumenti e dal recupero dell’‘ambienazione’, è quello del fare musica utilizzando oggetti originariamente destinati a tutt’altra bisogna (e i fantomatici set elettroacustici sono normalmente un raccolta di stramberie alle quali viene rifatto il maquillage). Superate le fasi della musica che ‘si fa’ rumore, stiamo ormai attraversando quella del rumore che 'si fa' musica. E nello spartiacque sembra stare il duo di “Rocca”, nel quale si celebra l’incontro fra le corde vocali bisbetiche di Agnès Palier e l’‘oggettario’ di Olivier Toulemonde. È il concetto di musica come gioco quello che emerge nitido da questi solchi e, a pensarci bene, in inglese il giocare ed il suonare non sono rappresentati forse dallo stesso vocabolo? Ecco quindi altri due giovanissimi provenienti dalla zona di Lione e un altro ottimo disco da sottoporre alla vostra attenzione. Fatene tesoro.
Resta infine da dire della Creative Sources, marchio che è partito in sordina ed ha oggi conquistato un ruolo guida, a livello internazionale, per questo tipo di improvvisazioni dall’impostazione prevalentemente (elettro)acustica. x e. g. (no ©) (Sands Zine)

Agnès Palier seems to find her sounds inside a small cave within herself, enervated emissions of breath and tiny vibrations of vocal cords coalescing into a highly personal fairyland – without the happy ending. Although a singer coming from a classical/jazz background, she uses her tools with a sort of repressed anxiety that sets the overall tone of Rocca close to those transcendental absurd theatre pieces which have the audience either scratching their heads or wailing in approval. Embryonic phonemes and timbral nuances coagulate according to their own strange morphology, at times sounding like a cassette player left on a towel at the beach with the batteries running out and the tape melting. Olivier Toulemonde's discreet amplified objects are the perfect complement to Palier’s frail digressions, microsonic crumbles, and percussive clucks and snaps; the deconstructed machinery of his caressing whispers underlines Palier's suffering postures, like those muffled earthquake thump-and-drag sounds made by children at play in the apartment above you. A valuable experience in uncomfortable pleasure and an inquisitive dismemberment of your listening attitudes. Maximo Ricci (Paris Transatlantic)

Le label du violoniste et compositeur portugais Ernesto Rodrigues propose l’un des catalogues les plus riches de la scène des musiques créatives actuelles en Europe. Le duo Agnès Palier/Olivier Toulemonde en est l’exemple parfait. De la vocaliste, on se remémore un album publié il y a quelques années en duo avec le saxophoniste Stéphane Rives. Olivier Toulemonde a participé quant à lui, il y a près de quinze ans maintenant, à la creation du collectif Ishtar, très actif en région Rhône-Alpes. La réunion des deux artistes n’est pas à proprement parler une surprise. Les recherches électro-acoustiques font partie en effet des preoccupations communes des deux artistes. Sur Rocca, la voix d’Agnès Palier va au bout de ses interrogations, sans transiger, elle pousse encore plus loin les limites physiques pour offrir une matière tout à la fois riche et maîtrisée. Le travail effectué par Olivier Toulemonde sur ce duo ne nous étonne plus, le musicien a prouvé depuis longtemps sa faculté à construire des pieces, à les faire vivre. Ici la complémentarité des deux musuciens est totale et donne à la musique qui en découle une homogénéité, et une saveur dont on ne saurait se passer. SéM (JazzoSphère)

The voice improviser Agnès Palier has earlier released only one record as far as I know, Oxymore from 1999. This was an utterly dense duo with sax player Stéphane Rives. Together they drew new patterns in the art of improvising. In France Palier is what we call a musicians´ musician. The trumpet player Birgit Ulher has released more albums, among others together with the singer Ute Wasserman and the Swedes Martin Küchen, Raymond Strid and Lise-Lotte Norelius.
In Hamurg Ulher is a central musician in the yearly Real Time Music Meeting. Her playing follows the deconstructive line started by Axel Dörner. But what makes it deconstructive? The free improvisation is a late modernistic project. There are parallels in concrete poetry and sound-text-compositions. The language, the traditional form and expression is torn to pieces. As the myths tell us about Orpheus or Lemminkäinen, whose bodies and limbs were torn to pieces to be spread all over the landscape. You can think of Lemminkäinen´s mother and talk about a reparation work to put together what has been torn to pieces also in free impro. Just listen to how the instruments have changed their sound from the late 60s´ and early 70s´ explosive force to more subtle sound oriented technical expansions. During the last years obviously electronics play a more and more important role as connecting glue in the music. In this context Ikue Mori´s groups during the 90s with vocalists Tenko and Catherine Jauniaux are artistic zenits. And to this you must also count Agnès Paliers latest album. Electronics and voice sneak into oneanother. They form a kind of play where the roles change and Palier uses fragments of language and sounds of language as a true virtuoso but without big gestures. The music shifts from light water colors to the blackest, darkest goth with dramatic breathing.
If we turn back to the myths about the torn and spread out limbs Paliers album is an example of a most originial musical reparation work. But Birgit Ulher puts her focus on the fragments themselves . It seems to me that for her the flux means less than the balance between silence and non silence. The color of sounds of her material is important and she is eager to tell us wether it comes from copper or any other metal. She is very different from for example Dörner in staying with small groups of sound and noise and with the meeting between the sound of air meeting different parts of her instrument. This gives the music a kind documentary and telling character.
The listener strives around in an archipelago of sounds exploring island after island.
The contemporary improvised music has both continued the heritage from its pioneers and left them. I think that the impro music of today in a couple of years´ time will be looked upon as an important crossroad, and that it is as important as the late 60s was. The new albums by Birgit Ulher and Agnès Palier are two extremely good examples of this period, two of the best of a period whose importance we have not yet fully understood. Thomas Millroth (Nutilda Musik)

Vocalist Agnes Palier and Olivier Toulemonde (electroacoustic set) meet up on Rocca (CS 051). Many of these tracks consist of low murmurs bathed in rich, echoplex sounds; it’s a lot like listening to a monastic choir through several layers of steel. This is a lovely effect that the two musicians occasionally meddle with in the wrong way, with a few too many birdsongs and scrapes moments, or a Minton-like squishy kiss that spoils the mood. But with the third – and longest – improvisation, they settle into a fine subdued space that explores reverberant overtones. Somehow, the moments where Palier ululates ecstatically are the least successful to me. I prefer the more intense, non-idiomatic vocals where she blends in with Toulemonde’s metallic whorls (which occasionally – as on the brief concluding track – flash with the weird synergy of, say, Cosmos). Pretty good. Jason Bivins (Bagatellen)

OLIVIER TOULEMONDE, ein, wie Stefan Hetzel mal geschrieben hat, beneidenswert schön benamter Elektroakustiker aus dem französischen Tossiat, hat schon mit seinem Resistance- Hörspiel Eclats de mémoire, mit Bug, seinem Duo mit dem Gitarristen Nicolas Desmarchelier, und mit Revermont, einer Begegnung von Bug mit dem Saxophonisten Michel Doneda, das bad alchemystische Radar unterflogen. Mit Rocca (cs 051) schabt und stichelt er nun erneut an meinen Trommelfellen im Verbund mit AGNÈS PALIER, einer Vokalistin, deren Performances & Meetings bevorzugt im Netzwerk bruitistischer Diskretion zu weiterer Wollmausfusselbildung beitragen. Toulemonde, der bereits als 21-jähriger das Collectif Ishtar in Bourg-en-Bresse und wenig später Collectif et Companie in Annecy mitbegründete und seither das Feld der elektroakustischen Improvisation mit eigenen Nuancen anreichert, operiert durchwegs haptisch und tachistisch, oft, speziell bei ‚#3‘, dem mit gut 19 Minuten längsten von 6 Anläufen, mit fragiler Perkussivität, so dass einem Fredi Studers For 4 Ears-Duos mit Ami Yoshida in den Sinn kommen können. Die anderen Clashes sind krätziger und lassen den Geräuschpegel extremer ausschlagen zwischen Luftlöchern und Schrecksekunden. Palier kaut an einem zu heißen Kartoffelbissen, schlürft, faucht, krächzt, imitiert ein Sopraninosaxophon, einen Raubvogel. Nicht immer lässt sich zweifelsfrei unterscheiden, was ihrem Mundraum entschlüpft und was Toulemonde aus seinem Geräuschkabinett pickt. Das Wörtchen ‚expressiv‘ würde den beiden ein Innenleben unterstellen, das ich hoffe, niemandem unterstellen zu müssen. Und auch die Stoßrichtung, die ‚Absicht‘ hinter dieser und verwandter S/M-Bruitistik möchte ich in ihrem wortlosen Selbstverständnis belassen. (Bad Alchemy)