Tuesday, April 08, 2014

L'Étau: Choses Clandestines (Keith Tippett/Michel Pilz/Paul Rogers/Jean-Noël Cognard)

L'Étau: Choses Clandestines
Keith Tippett/Michel Pilz/Paul Rogers/Jean-Noël Cognard

Bloc Thyristors 0140/50/60/70



L'Étau (The Vice) is a new free improvisation quartet formed at the behest of Hazel Miller, owner of the legendary Ogun Records label. Choses Clandestines (Clandestine Things) is their debut release, a mammoth 4LP set - two discs each of studio and live recordings - exclusive to the vinyl format and limited to just 300 copies on the boutique French Bloc Thyristors label.

Packaged in a luxurious, cloth-bound box of bright pink, a textured golden underlay is revealed via cutaway cover art. The same high standards continue inside the box, with detailed liner notes (in French) in the accompanying booklet and box inner. To complete the package the discs are pressed on black (studio) and white (live) vinyl with minimal labels.



Overall, the package is absolutely stunning, which is a perfect fit for the music it contains.



Tippett's dedication to prepared piano - wherein objects are placed within the body of the instrument, allowing for a vastly expanded sonic palette - has never before been so successful. Cognard (sounding something like a cross between Han Bennink and Keith Moon) is his perfect counter-part, skittering and twitching on a kit rich in tuned metals. Between the two of them one could easily believe they were listening to the playing of N. U. Unruh, percussionist with Einstürzende Neubauten.

But this is no industrial noise-fest. Lyrical whimsy, rich melody, and yes chord progressions and harmony all play a major part too. And with players like Rogers and Pilz also part of the line-up that should come as no surprise. On his seven string custom double bass (complete with additional sympathetic strings for droning resonance) Rogers is the consummate free bassist, and well used to playing alongside Tippett with whom he collaborated in the phenomenal Mujician project over many years. And Pilz's work on bass clarinet is simply without par - an extraordinarily sensitive player who always shines with singing clarity, yet has phenomenal, Coltrane-esque power in extended pitch technique.

Free improvisation rarely works as well as it does on Choses Clandestines. This is an album of beauty, sensitivity, and intensity, with a magnificent package to contain it. The other 299 people lucky enough to secure this album will undoubtedly agree. If you have any interest in free improvisation then this release is absolutely essential. Don't delay. They won't last long.

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