DANS LES ARBRES - Phoserensce
Hubro Records: HUBROCD2581
Xavier Charles: clarinet; Ivar Grydeland: electric guitars, real-time sampling; Christian Wallumrod: amplified prepared piano, synthesizer; Ingar Zach: gran cassa, percussion
Recorded 30th and 31st August 2015 in Isitart, Swedish woods
Grydeland and Zach have been ‘Dans les Arbres’ since the early 2000s. They expanded to a quartet, with Wallumrod and Charles in 2004 and released two CDs on ECM. This is their third album as a quartet, and develops further their approach to discovering music in sound. On earlier sets, the quartet improvised the instruments in a fairly straight manner (with little by way of effects) to produce a skewed version of ‘chamber music’. On this set, while the collection of instruments here has a sense of the familiar, the ways in which each instrument is prepared, sampled or played creates something peculiar and unsettling.
The recordings were made in a studio in rural Sweden and one might expect this to contribute to the atmosphere. Possibly it does – but this is not an atmosphere of pastoral harmony or rural idyll. Rather it has the edginess of dark forest, when your car has broken down and you’re walking along the deserted road to find help. The sounds mingle with each other, like whispered threats, and the main instruments pick up skewed versions of the themes which get picked apart by the other players. At times, there is a feel of Tibetan gongs and bells (although these sounds are effects on the instruments) and at other times, the creaks and susurrations are like branches moving ominously in a gathering storm. As a soundscape this works compellingly – I could imagine this as a soundtrack to a short, scary film. As a piece of performance music it is unpredictable, chilling and enthralling.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
Hubro Records: HUBROCD2581
Xavier Charles: clarinet; Ivar Grydeland: electric guitars, real-time sampling; Christian Wallumrod: amplified prepared piano, synthesizer; Ingar Zach: gran cassa, percussion
Recorded 30th and 31st August 2015 in Isitart, Swedish woods
Grydeland and Zach have been ‘Dans les Arbres’ since the early 2000s. They expanded to a quartet, with Wallumrod and Charles in 2004 and released two CDs on ECM. This is their third album as a quartet, and develops further their approach to discovering music in sound. On earlier sets, the quartet improvised the instruments in a fairly straight manner (with little by way of effects) to produce a skewed version of ‘chamber music’. On this set, while the collection of instruments here has a sense of the familiar, the ways in which each instrument is prepared, sampled or played creates something peculiar and unsettling.
The recordings were made in a studio in rural Sweden and one might expect this to contribute to the atmosphere. Possibly it does – but this is not an atmosphere of pastoral harmony or rural idyll. Rather it has the edginess of dark forest, when your car has broken down and you’re walking along the deserted road to find help. The sounds mingle with each other, like whispered threats, and the main instruments pick up skewed versions of the themes which get picked apart by the other players. At times, there is a feel of Tibetan gongs and bells (although these sounds are effects on the instruments) and at other times, the creaks and susurrations are like branches moving ominously in a gathering storm. As a soundscape this works compellingly – I could imagine this as a soundtrack to a short, scary film. As a piece of performance music it is unpredictable, chilling and enthralling.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
