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En Corps
http://www.darktree-records.com/dark-tree-02-chroniques
http://www.riccarda-kato.com/booking/projects/en-corps.html
Duboc/ Lasserre/Lazro
http://www.darktree-records.com/presse2
Nuts
Freejazz
W janvier 2009
chronique du disque "W' by Ken Waxman
Guerineau, Duboc y Lasserre: chapeau
Huesca (Spain) 8 may 2008
El trío francés actuó en el Juan Sebastian Bar el pasado miércoles
HUESCA.- Finalmente la de Huesca, en el Juan Sebastian Bar, ha sido la única actuación española del trío francés Guerineau-Duboc-Lasserre en su paso hacia Lisboa. Una actuación realizada completamente en acústico. Ni siquiera se usó amplificación para el contrabajo de Benjamín Duboc. El contrabajo es un instrumento que suele salir mal parado en estos formatos, pero que sonó en perfecto equilibrio con el saxo de Sylvain Guerineau y la curiosa batería de bolsillo -un kit reducido al máximo y de pequeño tamaño- de Didier Lasserre.
A lo largo de los dos pases que ofrecieron -más intenso el primero y relajado el segundo- se mostraron como un trío perfectamente compenetrado. Aunque sin protagonismos, buena parte de su sonoridad recae en el saxo alto de Guerineau. Un saxo que bebe de los dos grandes iconos del free, John Coltrane y sobretodo de Albert Ayler. Pero un saxofonismo que lejos de desembocar en el grito ayleriano -el “aylarido”- propio de algunos de sus más fieles seguidores, como el incendiario Frank Wright, está matizado por el lirismo y el gusto por la melodía del que hicieron gala otros saxofonistas del primer free como Marion Brown, Noah Howard? Un saxofonismo que llega a climax contenidos, que no son el fin de las improvisaciones sino una fase del discurso.
El corpulento Duboc se mostró como un gran contrabajista. Fue el apoyo-replica al discurso de Guerineau. Con un ataque fuerte y seco actuó como impulsor del trío alternando el arco con el pizzicato. Situado en el centro fue el catalizador y bisagra. Por su parte Lasserre, con la batería reducida a un pequeño bombo, una caja y un plato, tuvo una labor casi minimal. En las antípodas de los baterías que gustan lanzar series de palos a diestro y siniestro -con buena acogida popular- empujó y acentuó el discurso del trío desde la discreción.
El broche de oro de una noche en la que interpretaron material propio fue el bis. Ecos de La Marsellesa en la fanfarria ayleriana. Apres Ayler, rien va plus. C´est tout. Chapeau.
Jesús MORENO
ETAU
(Edward Perraud - drums, Benjamin Duboc - bass)
Format: CD
Label: Creative Sources
CS064
Review by: Andrea Ferraris
The last release I’ve been reviewing was a drum plus drum recording, following next is another rhythm section, but the sound and the global result of the combination is considerably different. First off this time the duo is based on drum and bass and differently from Field and Babel it’s not rhythmic music and is also far from pulsing solutions: Duboc’s and Perraud’s favorite game is to twist and shape the atmospheres. By some means the the two twenty minutes long suites featured on this cd revive the spirit of some of my favorite ensembles like Gruppo di Nuova Consonanza, AMM and more recently Civil War, I’m saying that since despite working on “free” improvisation (even if the term for the first two projects was/is really reductive) they had a contemporary classic, avant-garde approach that brought them to play something really out of time. The style of Perraud in particular reminds me of unbeatable Eddie Prevost and obviously some of his best tricks with cymbals, skins, ghost drumming and the “no sound is innocent” philosophy. It’s real, if you pay attention to it, their music is quite clear and outspoken regarding the fact they care really much about every single sound beaten, bowed, played on the record; they “play the room” following the rule number one in the bible the majority of improvisers worship, and they’re doing it really well. Ghostly moods, retained waiting games in order to explore the composition in a patient way, sound after sound everything has to come to surface and take for granted it will surface like a dead body whose lungs are still full of air. The main difference between the first and the second part of the cd is that in the second composition when they decide to play, they go for steady interventions, with that I don’t mean they sound better or more powerfully built, I just wonna say the work sounds in a less ethereal way and they counterpoint silence with more firm playing if compared to the first of the two tracks.
THE FISH
(Jean-Luc Guionnet - alto sax, Edward Perraud - drums, Benjamin Duboc - bass)
Live at Olympic Café & Jazz à Mulhouse
Ayler Records, aylCD-008/057
Coda / Jazz Word
By: Ken Waxman
Screaming, screeching Energy Music – but with cerebral insight – this two-CD set confirms that no-holds-barred Aylerian Free Jazz continues to thrive and vibrate in France and elsewhere. Paradoxically enough though, The Fish’s alto saxophonist Jean-Luc Guionnet and drummer Edward Perraud are also members of Hubbub, the French quintet whose approach to improvisation is hushed and minimalist to the extreme.
Yet on the three long tracks here, recorded in a Paris café and at an Alsatian jazz festival, Guionnet plays with boisterous, unbridled, piercing intensity, as Perraud rolls, rebounds and smashes in a Rashied Ali-like fashion. Third Fish is bassist Benjamin Duboc, veteran of many other Euro improv bands, who alternately thumps powerful beats or shuffle bows and resonates unexpected arco string patterns.
Playing with a vibrato so wide it seems to engulf both his mouthpiece and reed, Guionnet use shrill slide-whistles, sharp reed-biting expansions, fog-horn lows and snorty smeared tones to emotionally express an impetus that move the two circular, twisting Paris improvisations forward.
Impelling the musical ferment another notch higher a year later at the jazz festival, the saxophonist’s agitated, bravura performance opens up still further so that the drummer and bassist are properly showcased as well. Besides the stuttering glossolalia and heraldic guttural honks of the saxophonist, the timbral kaleidoscope is distinctively stretched by perfect unison between thwacking power-strokes from Duboc and piercing elongated scrapes on Perraud’s thick ride cymbal.
This set proves beyond doubt that not only does Energy Music still thrive, but its practitioners can impress in varied musical setting. More listeners should hook The Fish.
Signal To Noise
By: Marc Medwin
This double disc, culled from two live concerts in 2005 and 2006, represents an act of courage. The tradition of "blowing" long-form "free jazz" has birthed many masterpieces but even more disasters. Those that would follow in the footsteps of late 'Trane, Cecil Taylor and Albert Ayler have their work cut out for them; constant invention is paramount but more often than not, empty rhetoric carries the day, inducing boredom at best, frustration at worst.
This French trio is admirable, certainly for its virtuosity, but foremost for beating the odds and presenting long-form improvisations that maintain a consistently high level of interest. Alto saxophonist Jean-Luc Guionnet is largely, though certainly not exclusively, responsible for getting the ball rolling, as “Heleginus" opens the album with his beautifully Eastern-tinged melodies floating over bass and drums. Bassist Benjamin Duboc, whose work I have enjoyed in other contexts, is the first to engage Guionnet fully, initiating a series of sweeps and glides early in the 37-minute track. Drummer Edward Perraud soon follows suit with expert rolls and thuds, but the first moment of real group glory occurs at around 2:35 when everything comes to an unexpected and thrilling halt. Just for an instant, time is suspended, a moment of synchronicity that only a well-formed and long practiced group executes convincingly – and is that an audience member expressing admiration?
Over the long haul, a special relationship between Guionnet and Perraud becomes evident, first at 4:19, where the drummer picks up on a Guionnet motive and they hurl it to the sky. Yet, Duboc, intent on multiple rhythms and rapidly varied attack rather than on razorsharp lines or overtones, supports both of his comrades, alternately another melodist and a drummer of sorts in his own right. His contributions are most apparent during “Gracilus”’s opening moments, but repeated listening shows him to be engaged similarly throughout, even if sometimes overshadowed by the others. The set just gets better with every listen, revealing intricacies that can be lost on initial listening due to high energy and high volume.
The Wire
By: Julian Cowley
“Live music with spirit” is the Ayler Records motto and this fits the bill perfectly. Two lengthy pieces in Paris at the end of 2005 and one from Alsace last August show this fiery French trio in blistering form. Bassist Benjamin Duboc and drummer Edward Perraud sustain the pace, and provide a rugged backdrop while Jean-Luc Guionnet wrings intensity from his alto saxophone. Each of the three tracks is in the vicinity of 40 minutes and the level of energy doesn’t flag. While early examples of this kind of aggressive free jazz blowing make most replicas superfluous, there’s nothing redundant about the stamina, high tension and sinuous fluency of The Fish’s music.
Downtown Music Gallery
By: Bruce Lee Gallanter
Two members on The Fish, Jean-Luc Guionnet and Edward Perraud, are members of the great French improv quintet Hubbub, who have two fine discs on Matchless and I caught at the Victo Fest a few years back.
Percussionist, Edward Perraud, can be heard on an excellent recent duo disc with Paul Rogers on FMR. Disc 1 was recorded at the Olympic Cafe in December of 2005 and Disc 2 was recorded at the Jazz a Mulhouse in August of 2006, both in France.
Unlike Hubbub, this trio is not so restrained. Disc 1 explodes open with some powerful alto/bass/drums trio action, very concentrated and quite intense. They are very tight as they erupt together into a swirling storm of burning energy.
This is wonderful free/jazz spirit music at its best, unleashed and mind-blowingly immense. All three players are well-matched and swirl tightly together into one dynamic force. It is impossible to tell where these cats come from, just by listening they speak the universal language of free/music as well as anyone well-known or unknown.
Jazznett
By: Henrik Kaldahl
The Fish are a French trio who is dedicated to playing free jazz and improvising, and does it very, very well. The Fish are the following three musicians – Jean-Luc Guionnet on alto saxophone, Benjamin Duboc on bass and Edward Perraud on drums.
This release, from Ayler records, is a double CD with live numbers from two concerts - one from the Olympic café in Paris France on the 22. of December 2005 and one from The Mulhouse jazz festival, France on the 26. of August 2006.
Three long numbers are what we as listeners are being presented for, and what fantastic numbers they are. Guionnet blows and screams on his saxophone like it was the last thing he has got to do in this world, Duboc tortures the strings on his bass with amazing groovy results and Perraud bangs and smashes the drums with such power that you are afraid that he is going to destroy his drum skins.
The most amazing thing about The Fish are the truly amazing interplay between the musicians, all three of them are improvising and going in different directions, playing the best they have ever learned, but they always keep it together. Never going to long out with their improvisations and never playing without a purpose.
It is releases like this one that makes it all worth while being a free jazz fan, to hear the joy and love of playing from this trio convinces me that the great masters like Albert Ayler, John Coltrane and many others has not lived for no reason.
If you only are going to buy one free jazz CD this summer, then this is the one you should be going for, I promise you that you won't be disappointed – The Fish is the bomb.
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