phonèmes |cs053

Fragmentos de uma jornada em torno e ao interior de um contrabaixo. Em duas peças únicas, com a duração média de 20 minutos cada, David Chiesa (nasc. 1970), contrabaixista francês autodidacta, desce às profundezas do instrumento e descobre segredos escondidos, que traz à superfície. Chiesa orienta o seu trabalho na direcção de outras artes, a poesia, a dança, o cinema. Cinematográfica é a sucessão de imagens que o contrabaixista sugere, pizzicato, percussão e movimentos com arco na transformação da música em palavras, fonografia de amplo vocabulário e riqueza imagética. A música de David Chiesa, complexa na sua estruturação, nasce de um processo de composição em tempo real e exige do ouvinte algo mais que a mera passividade na fruição - a decifração de uma linguagem que se vai tornando inteligível e familiar à medida em que o ouvinte se deixa envolver e seduzir. Phonèmes foi gravado em Juillaguet, França, por Laurent Sassi, com a assistência do contrabaixista norte-americano Kent Carter, em Novembro de 2005. Edição da Creative Sources Recordings, 2005. Eduardo Chagas (Jazz e Arredores)

"Phonèmes" is an album in which double bass is more the means for an anguishing self-analysis than a regular instrument. David Chiesa does not hide his intentions, confronting us with a meagre aesthetic of gestural subtlety, eliciting concentrated bursts of energy from the bass while leaving silence to oversee the whole performance. Although devoid of any kind of known pattern, Chiesa's style is a counterattack against that genetic manipulation which - slowly but inevitably - is transforming what we used to call "reductionism" to a cliché, still palatable but somehow predictable. Without the need of extraterrestrial techniques or excess of revolutionary application, the two tracks of this CD use a whole lot of dynamic (in)discipline and textural dissonance, privileging pictorial representations of touching depth and accomplished manipulations of acoustic attributes - both strong assets in this artist's engaging work. Massimo Ricci (Touching Extremes)

More musicality is experienced on the solo-album by David Chiesa. He started as an electric basssplayer in rock bands, but changed to improvised music and the acoustic bass. In a duel with silence quiet and loud parts succeed each other, illustrating in the meantime the considerable technique of Chiesa. Dolf Mulder (Vital)

"Phonèmes" to pierwsza solowa plyta Davida Chiesa, urodzonego w 1970 r. francuskiego kontrabasisty i gitarzysty basowego, który w 1997 roku "nawrócil sie" z rocka na muzyke improwizowana, wspólpracujac odtad owocnie nie tylko z innymi muzykami, ale i z tancerzami, poetami (wiersz jednego z nich - Ly Thanh Tien zdobi ksiazeczke omawianej plyty) i eksperymentalnymi filmowcami. W kregu zainteresowan Chiesy znajduje sie tez wzajemna relacja pomiedzy materialem improwizowanym a nagrywanym; intryguja go wszelkie interakcje zachodzace pomiedzy wykonaniem i jego sposobem zapisywania. Jest wspólzalozycielem Le Clou - stowarzyszenia popularyzujacego i promujacego muzyke improwizowana. "Phonèmes", nagrana w studio MAD w Juillanguet w listopadzie 2005 r., zawiera dwa utwory zarejestrowane i edytowane przez Laurenta Sassi - jednego z czlonków kolektywu Ouie/Dire, z którym Chiesa regularnie wspólpracuje. Przy nagrywaniu materialu asystowal Kent Carter - znakomity, acz chyba nieco niedoceniany kontrabasista (najbardziej chyba kojarzony z formacjami kierowanymi przez Steve'a Lacy, Carle Bley i Johna Stevensa). Nie dziwi wiec to, ze uskrzydlony ich obecnoscia Chiesa nagral album znakomity, byc moze zawierajacy muzyke nieco hermetyczna, lecz wciaz przyswajalna.
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Plyta stanowi zapis podrózy przez kraine artykulacji. Muzyk posluguje sie calym arsenalem sposobów wydobycia i ksztaltowania dzwieku (czyzby to byly owe tytulowe fonemy?), jednak nie traktuje ich jako celu samego w sobie, lecz jako srodek sluzacy tworzeniu utworów. Obydwa nagrania skladaja sie z pojedynczych komórek, obmywanych falami ciszy, rozdzielajacej poszczególne epizody i przez to nie zachowuja tradycyjnie pojmowanej ciaglosci. Scala je jednak swoista powsciagliwosc w odmalowywaniu dzwiekowego uniwersum, gdyz mgla introwertyzmu okrywa nawet te najbardziej drapieznie brzmiace fonemy jezyka kontrabasowej improwizacji calunem melancholii. Byc moze to wlasnie ona nadaje tej muzyce znaczenie. Tadeusz Kosiek (Diapazon)

I was not familiar with Chiesa's work, but in the same Creative Sources batch there's an improvised performance where he plays with Jean-Luc Guionnet (here offering his drawings for the layout), Eric La Casa and Emmanuel Petit, which I'll review anytime soon. "Phonèmes" features two improvised studio sessions recorded last november, where Chiesa explores the possibilities of double bass, his instrument of choice. I am always a bit skeptical when it comes to solo improvised recordings, but this French musician manages to pour both the free-flowing qualities of radical improv and a great sense of timing and discipline. "Phonèmes" is indeed an appropriate title, as Chiesa is apparently stripping the sound qualities of his instrument to their very physical components - from intense bowing to sparse thumps. It's obviously not an easy listening record, but there's an underlying, compressed strength to it that makes the experience a rewarding one. Eugenio Maggi (Chain DLK)

Bassist David Chiesa’s solo Phonemes (CS 053) is a fine statement which compares favorably with recitals like Domenico Sciajno’s Broken Bridge. The first of these two pieces begins with thuds on the body punctuated by occasional scrapes and submarine drones. This relatively sparse palette is explored fully, and Chiesa slowly knits the different pieces together while increasing the aggression and tension. The second piece explores spectral tones even more fully, digging into the contrast between extreme upper register whispers and sepulchral moans. There are also some hot flashes of nastiness and some mournful pizzicato towards the end. Basically, this program explores a few ideas very effectively. Fans of solo bass improvising should definitely hear it. Jason Bivins (Bagatellen)