Suite Pour Machines À Mèche |cs215

Bobun is a duo of French-Japanese viola-pkayer Frantz Loriot, whom we know from the excellent "Baloni", and French cellist Hugues Vincent. The line-up is rare and we have so far only reviewed two other albums on this blog (Stefano Pastor & Kash Killion, and Vincent Royer & Séverine Ballon). Both musicians have played together for ten years, as a duo, but also with lots of Japanese and French musicians, including the great Joëlle Léandre, who was a teacher to both of them.

By their very nature, string duets bring us away from jazz as we know it, and Loriot and Vincent take us even a step further away from the known. Their open-ended minimalist music is built around either a drone-like tonal center as on the first track, or around silence like zen drawings or zen gardens. The strings carve out the space around the silence. With little touches, soft movements of surprise and wonder. But like Japanese art, the approach is equally direct and in-the-moment, intimate, recognisable yet at the same time shocking, revealing, pushing the listener (and the players?) out of their comfort zone, challenging his or her perceptions until you give up and just go with the sounds. And this is rewarding, because by the time you've completely let go, the approach changes slightly in the ear-piercing last-but-one track and then into the last track which miraculously opens like a flower.

A strange compelling aesthetic. Steff (Free Jazz Collective)

Un curieux et intéressant album réunissant un violoncelliste et un altiste (violon alto) et leurs objets. Que ce soit au bord du silence (Shizuka na Yume), dans un chassé croisé enlevé et tortueux (Un certain agacement se faisait sentir parfois) ou à l'unisson (Immersion), cet excellent duo propose différentes approches musicales qui attirent l'oreille et font sens. Nitescence (1:35) est une piécette minimaliste qui met en valeur de fines harmoniques avec musicalité : un rien crée de la musique. L'album se termine par une balade somptueuse et un jeu subtil avec la pression de l'archet, les harmoniques. Rien que pour cette Emersion, je vous recommande Bobun. On s'y rappelle même un peu Music from Two Basses ... Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg (Orynx-improv'andsounds)

In addition to their passion for genetical engineering and defiling of respective musical instruments, viola and cello, as well as a decade of duetting, French-Japanese violist Frantz Loriot, whom I already introduced on the occasion of a review of his collaborative project Viola Two Viola with Cyprien Busolini, and French cellist Hugues Vincent have in common the teachings by Joelle Leandre, one of the most renowned improvisational master. Her Cage-inspired approach to composition, her precepts about the importance of solid classical compositional prep even for the most ungodly improviser who wants to build a bridge between improvisation and composition seem to resound in this "Suite pour machines a meche" (translatable as "Suite for drill machines"). The introductive tuning of "Immersion" with their two instruments which seem to follow opposite directions on musical scale - viola (getting more and more piercing) towards higher pitches and cello, which looks like an emulation of binaural tones of a brain machine, towards very low ones - and the final "Emersion", a sort of ballad where a certain declension of harmonics unexpectedly features in a lead role, could mean to suggest there have been some intent of describing a sort of journey into the abyss of respective performative language with some topical phases such the total approach on the threshold of silence on "Shizuka na yume", whose woody stripping of bark and gunky sliding on strings are maybe the most bizarre moments of the release, the mechanical assemblage, testing, timing and calibration on "La Machine", the neurasthenic and enervating scraping on the eruptive "Un certain agacement se faisait sentir parfois" (transl."A certain irritation sometimes makes itself perceivable") and the minimalistic harmonic germ of "Nitescence". This release by Bobun packs so many sonic hints that it easily manages to attract listener's ear. Vito Camarretta (Chain DLK)

Suite pour machines à mèche du duo Bobun (Loriot, alto et objets, et Hugues Vincent, violoncelle et objets) a été enregistré à Saint-Jean-le-Blanc. On y retrouve les drones périlleux et la causticité des disques précédents, « Immersion » se parant aussi de « minimalisme » par de surprenantes inflexions tonales qui doivent autant à Lou Harrison qu’à Pauline Oliveros. Les objets à fonction percussive sont mis à contribution avec mesure et s’intègrent avec bonheur à l’ensemble. « Un certain agacement se faisait sentir parfois » porte bien son titre, captant au plus près du micro des cordes en pétard, avant qu’un bref « Nitescence » suraigu donne l’impression que les archets en veulent à vos nerfs et tendons. Le cinéma fantastique vous laisse de marbre ? Il vous sera difficile d’écouter ces albums dans l’obscurité sans en éprouver quelque inquiétude. « Emersion » clôt l’album façon lyrisme brut. David Cristol (downtownmusic.net)

Despite the ruined piano displayed on the cover of Suite pour machines à mèche, Bobun is actually a string duo: viola player Frantz Loriot and cellist Hugues Vincent. They both also use objects in this series of studio improvisations. There are some gorgeous plays on textures and harmonics. I’m reminded of Ernesto Rodrigues & son. The long-form “Shizuka na yume” has everything to please my seasoned ears. François Couture (Monsieur Délire)

I believe Bobun is the name of the duo consisting of Frantz Loriot (viola, objects) and Hugues Vincent (cello, objects). The cover may presage something of a Ross Bolleter excursion but I hear mostly the strings, no ancient piano in range. Six pieces, the first a very effective set of drones, rising to wails, plummeting to groans, overtly dramatic in perhaps an old-fashioned way but nonetheless, gripping. Things grow more disjointed thereafter, the pair, on the next track, scrabbling about on one instrument, wispily bowing the other, nervous, sometimes over-busy but a solid low tone anchoring affairs now and then. The music veers into a bout of efi-ish work midstream, circles back to the more contemplative, powdery rubs and bowings and I think I hear a few tinkles from that piano...or perhaps a music box. The final returns to the lamentative state of the opening piece, less droning, wavier, quite moving. SOme really strong work in here, even if there are inconsistencies. I get the impression that, like a number of musicians engaged in free improvisation (which this is), they're better served hewing closer to so-called traditional forms than forcing themselves ostensibly outward; there's still much beauty to be found therein. Brian Olewnick (Just Outside)

Rarely does that sound, what is commonly referred to as avant-garde, so lively, playful and earthy like the present improvisations by Frantz Loriot and his musical colleagues. As the sparks fly, because you can feel the simple joy of making music. Fastest to be heard on track 3 of the duo Bobun. A highly musical short circuit equal to Violin and Cello rub together until they fall silent exhausted. But the long suspense master Vincent Loriot and excellent. The last three improvisations give a unit: From the silence and darkness seems to be a faint light to approach. First gently, then mysteriously, then disturbingly passionate. Eventually gives way to the danger a conciliatory conclusion, with verifiable soothing harmonies and tonality. Also violatwoviola and Balonis fremdenzimmer are located on the same level. The former fiery brutal, the latter enriched with melodic jazzy set pieces. Nice if vanguard is so much fun. Eder (freiStil)

Bobun est le nom d'un autre duo de cordes avec Frantz Loriot toujours, au violon alto (et objets), et Hugues Vincent au violoncelle (avec objets également). Les deux musiciens proposent une suite de six pièces très variées, des pièces improvisées mais qui semblent suivre des idées ou des structures préétablies. On passe du bourdon lancinant en guise d’ouverture à l’exploration sonique des cordes et l’expérimentation des techniques étendues, pour finir avec une pièce composée à partir d’une mélodie un peu sautillante. Différentes formes de dialogue et d’interaction sont également proposées suivant les pièces, qui vont de la confusion et de l’entremêlement total une distinction ou une hiérarchie des voix. Outre la magnifique pièce qui ouvre ce disque avec un bourdon très profond et puissant, l’attention aux couleurs, abstraites ou non, au son en général et à sa profusion dans l’espace ont pas mal retenu mon attention. Un bon disque proche de l’improvisation libre mais qui sait aussi prendre ses libertés vis-à-vis des canons de ce « genre », notamment dans sa recherche de formes et de structures singulières. Julien Heraud (ImprovSphere)