JEAN-LUC GUIONNET - Solo à la Decollation
Tour de Bras records CD tdb9044cd
Jean-Luc Guionnet, solo pipe organ
Recorded at the Church of the Decollation of Saint-Jean Baptiste in L'Isle-verte, Quebec, Canada, on April 2nd and 3rd, 2019
Guionnet is an artist from Paris who revels in diversity. Film-maker and philosopher, composer of electro-acoustical music and free improviser, often with solo saxophone, and here he experiments again (and again) with solo pipe organ, otherwise known to us as a church organ, but only if it is in a church. Guionnet has been experimenting with these instruments for over 15 years, finding historical examples of them all over the world.
He is an atypical musician, as these four pieces illustrate: here he seems to be questioning the organ as to its capabilities and just what is it doing in a church anyway? He studied musique concrète under Iannis Xenakis (see his Formalized Music: Thought and Mathematics in Composition) and he looks upon an instrument as though their design defects and fabric flaws might catalyse the revelation of otherwise unknown auditory features.
His approach to the organ in the Church of the Decollation is to accentuate its unusual features through a sound-slanted, minimalist tactic. The apparent silence which opens the performance, presented as four pieces, is suggestive of contemplation, the Ghost in the Machine alive and well in the organ pipes, its breathing hardly interrupted by occasional glitches, murmurs and whines. Oh, what’s this afoot? Impenetrable groans and roars and thunders invoke a heavy ambience, redolent of fear and danger.
This musical form cannot be described as agreeable, but that is not its objective. Instead, it is testing, setting out to raise questions, perhaps challenging the organ itself. Guionnet’s approach is seldom encountered, but its results are extremely absorbing.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
Tour de Bras records CD tdb9044cd
Jean-Luc Guionnet, solo pipe organ
Recorded at the Church of the Decollation of Saint-Jean Baptiste in L'Isle-verte, Quebec, Canada, on April 2nd and 3rd, 2019
Guionnet is an artist from Paris who revels in diversity. Film-maker and philosopher, composer of electro-acoustical music and free improviser, often with solo saxophone, and here he experiments again (and again) with solo pipe organ, otherwise known to us as a church organ, but only if it is in a church. Guionnet has been experimenting with these instruments for over 15 years, finding historical examples of them all over the world.
He is an atypical musician, as these four pieces illustrate: here he seems to be questioning the organ as to its capabilities and just what is it doing in a church anyway? He studied musique concrète under Iannis Xenakis (see his Formalized Music: Thought and Mathematics in Composition) and he looks upon an instrument as though their design defects and fabric flaws might catalyse the revelation of otherwise unknown auditory features.
His approach to the organ in the Church of the Decollation is to accentuate its unusual features through a sound-slanted, minimalist tactic. The apparent silence which opens the performance, presented as four pieces, is suggestive of contemplation, the Ghost in the Machine alive and well in the organ pipes, its breathing hardly interrupted by occasional glitches, murmurs and whines. Oh, what’s this afoot? Impenetrable groans and roars and thunders invoke a heavy ambience, redolent of fear and danger.
This musical form cannot be described as agreeable, but that is not its objective. Instead, it is testing, setting out to raise questions, perhaps challenging the organ itself. Guionnet’s approach is seldom encountered, but its results are extremely absorbing.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
