Saturday, September 27, 2014

more sketches




Music of the week: one of the musicians who influenced me the most is Marc Ribot. I saw him on stage in the early 1990s - a little bit by chance, all I knew about him was that he was playing for Tom Waits - and he blew my mind: it was like nothing I ever heard before, not rock, not jazz, a bit of everything and a unique sound, something really freeing for someone like me who was still looking for his style (shortly after I would drop composed music and shift to impro). 

Most of the music played at that concert was released later on the live album 'Yo! I Killed Your God', that I listened to yesterday again - I have a concert tomorrow and I like to refresh my inspiration by listening to good stuff.

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

more sketches




Music of the week: early september, Soft Power Ensemble of Vienna had a 3-day residence in RadioKulturHaus, in the studios of the Austrian national radio, and we improvised for many hours… So the music I hear the most these last days is a rough mix of what we played, because we plan to release a record of this music and there is a lot of work ahead of selecting, editing, mixing, producing, etc… I went through half of it so far, and when I'm fed up I go to YouTube hindu worship channels to listen to endless mantras, such as this one...  

Saturday, September 13, 2014

more sketches




My next collaborative project is probably a headless guitar - not my immediate choice but interesting in term of ergonomics.

Alain Bashung - L'Imprudence : I never listen to French pop music, and I even find it irritating when they play some in German or Austrian cafés like it is trendy to do! I can listen to classic French chanson, but as much as jazz combined beautifully with French poetry and inspired genius songwriting as early as in the 1930s - from Charles Trenet to Claude Nougaro via Georges Brassens -, rock never really worked for France. It was actually introduced in the 1950s, but as a parodic genre, by Boris Vian and Henri Salvador who were genuine jazz musicians and thought that rock was mere a fad - and bad music. It never went over that I'm afraid, and doing first degree French rock is almost impossible, and often pathetic. 

But French people like me - and like everybody in the world - still grew up listening to English and American rock and pop, and that's what influences them when they want to make music. It's just extremely difficult to create something specific and authentic combining two cultures both foreign and very close. Alain Bashung was one of the few who could do that - and I remember that he was the first to bring post-punk sounds in the early 1980s in France. At some point he became such an institution in France that it was impossible to listen to his music anymore, but he was vey talented for self-sabotage and in 2002 he released L'Imprudence

In this radical album clearly inspired by Scott Walker, you hardly have real songs anymore, often no tunes, no verses, no choruses, just half chanted, half spoken words of his trademark tongue-in-cheek obscure poetry, on top of atmospheric but melodious music mixing electric guitars (played by Marc Ribot or Arto Lindsay), big orchestra, percussions and his heartbreaking harmonica. The album is a bit too long but Bashung's voice is very emotional, that allows him to go a step further than Walker (in my humble opinion).


Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Solo in Klangfestival #7 in Gallneukirchen




So on August 22nd I performed solo at the Klangfestival #7 and I had a really good time there - and from what I heard the audience enjoyed it too, but can one trust people who come to you after a concert and tell you it was cool? 

Anyway, it was the first time for a long time that I played outdoor, for as much as I love noise music, I usually don't want to impose it to other people, but it was in a farm in the Austrian countryside, in a festival dedicated to radical music, so everybody was there to listen to something like that - except the cows I guess… I played guitars and electronics, plus voice and conch shell blowing - I know that a video was shot but i didn't see it yet, maybe I'll post it here later. 

The whole festival was very cool, nice people, good music, bio food, beautiful landscape... There's nothing I enjoy more that what creative and dedicated people can make happen in the interstices of the system...

Sorry but I can't really credit all the pictures, they come from various sources - a.o. the Klangfestival Facebook page… 

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