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Evan Parker/Derek Bailey/Han Bennink - Topographie Parisienne 4xCD Archival Set


colinmce

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Almost three and a half hours of music for an evening at Le Dunois. Two DB - HB - EP trios of more than 40 minutes. Two 12 - and 27 - minute DB - EP duets, a 30 - minute DB - HB duo, two 12 - minute HB - EP duets and two 11 - and 10 - minute EP solos. If Evan Parker and Derek Bailey collaborated closely in duets and other ensembles such as Music Improvisation Company and then Company, as well as with the Spontaneous Music Ensemble (the album Karyobin and the legendary double ceded The Quintessence for example), it's mostly in duet with Derek Bailey that Bennin has been performing for years. Jean-Marc Foussat, the lighting director of FOU Records, has been an ubiquitous, enthusiastic, selfless and generous soundman ever since. We owe him some superb sounds for these musicians: Aida, a solo of Derek Bailey, Pisa 80 An Improvisor's Symposium of Evan Parker with Bailey Lovens Lewis etc ..., Epiphany of Company etc ... Today, after checking carefully the circumstances of the concert and the recording with the protagonists and witnesses like Jean Buzelin and Jean Rochard, Foussat decided to publish the entirety of it. Maybe Derek Bailey or Evan Parker would have picked enough to sell two. Since the time of the recording of Topography of The Lungs, a flagship album recorded in 1970 as a creative manifesto for the independent label Incus founded by Bailey, Parker and Tony Oxley, a lot of water had already flowed under the bridges. Topography was then the expression of a sound exploration in the margin of the instrument. Each instrumentalist assumes, directly or in their own way, the "non-idiomatic" demand expressed by Bailey a few years later(see his book Improvisation Its Nature and Practice in Music) within the free-jazz phenomenon completely free and aggressive panzer trend -muzik of Brotzmann and Schlippenbach. But also the music of this album is that of a collective welded and coherent with a common musical goal, the discovery of new sounds and modes of games and completely revolutionary improvisations. In 1981, this concert features three individuals who have evolved since the year of the recording of Topography of The Lungs and tiennnet to emphasize their differences. It is clear that Bennink and Parker do not have the same concerns. Derek Bailey has found a personal style that will find its most beautiful expression in 1980 in the acoustic album Aida (Incus 40) and his virtuoso playing on the electric, based on the use of a volume pedal, has acquired in a clear and logical way with its partners. Evan Parker has embarked on solo soprano sax music (an illusion of polyphony with circular breathing) as can be heard twice in this set. And he too has created a very personal universe where the oblique treatment of melodic and sometimes repetitive elements with a magical inspiration meets his immoderate taste for alternative breathing and articulation techniques. Han Bennink has abandoned his drums drums composed of Chinese drums, woodblocks, bells, scrapers, Indian tablas, a multitude of cymbals and rattlesnakes of all sizes and provenances, not to mention this gigantic bass drum, for a much more basic ancient kit. His current style refers more to the sound of Baby Dodds than to that of Elvin Jones, reintroducing African rhythms as they are heard on the ethnological field recordings he collected eagerly (Ocora and Unesco). He adopts a host of instruments: it is heard here to the clarinet and trombone with which he opens the hostilities in the trio of CD 2 with a real talent while playing drums with the feet. A little farther, it is with the harmonica that it is inserted between the two duettists British. But it was not unusual for him to fight with a violin or banjo sitting on the floor. It is also heard to whirl the pulsations and strikes on the surface of these instruments as if all the furniture of an apartment was flying down the stairs bouncing on the steps. Rather than creating a universe based on a common denominator, each artist, and especially Bennink and Bailey, tries to train the other towards his personal fads. On the first trio of CD 1, Bailey can barely be heard playing the acoustic guitar surrounded by the loudness of the other two. Likewise, in the HB - DB duo of CD 4. This CD 4 closes with a fascinating duet from Parker to soprano and Bennink to clarinet and bass clarinet, which manages to cope with the prodigy. As this is probably the second and final meeting of these three essential musicians, these recordings should alert all who are interested in near and far improvised music and recall the importance of Dunois 28 in the musical life of the improvisation. Steve Beresford just made a comment about a trio gig at the Little Theater Club, presumably in the early '70s. Extraordinary moments and brave attempts to diversify sound and sound practices are removed from this album. hold the challenge of the duration and diversification of improvisations. Paris topography of a multiplicity of sounds and musical actions and a real complicity between three major artists. These recordings contain all the ingredients of free-music, the explosive energy is close to the trance, the silence is approached with a lot of sonic details, the madness of Han Bennink Bailey presses in its last entrenchments, even in the airy sequences by inventing unforgettable rhythmic figures. If Parker seems imperturbable, he does not hesitate to burst the column of air and warm his reed. Despite inevitable overflows (Bennink!), A deep listening binds the three musicians, especially trio. The Cd2 Trio also evolves unexpectedly, expressing very validly the philosophy of Project Company in its approach to renew and extend the practice of improvisation. I also add that we hear the audience laughing with the jokes (visual) drummer. Some would say that these four CDs are too long and excessive. I maintain that the exchanges and follies contained here exert (still and ever) a real fascination and that they drag us into extremes to which a studio session does not always succeed. Thank you Jean-Marc, Han and Evan for having authorized this unexpected and highly delightful release!"-Fou Records (via Google Translator)

Edited by colinmce
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Sound quality is good on CD1, very present. A couple of Bennink trademark "explosions" have had me nearly jump out of my seat. 

As the notes above observes it's not too easy to hear Bailey's acoustic guitar at times but I suspect it wasn't if you were there on the night. 

I'm looking forward to spending time with this release

And, thanks colinmce for the easier to read notes in the original post. 

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