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East West Collective: Humeurs
ByOverlapping passages distinguished by combinations of unusual sonorities and careful listening form one of the unit's defining traits. Rarely does the whole ensemble play at the same time. While some segments verge on the abstract others are unexpectedly tuneful or rhythmic, especially those in which Masaoka or Fengxia evoke reiterated guitar like motifs. Although all but one cut is generated on-the-fly, the sleeve notes intimate that Petit furnishes strategies or road maps to guide at least some of the pieces. If so they must be very light touch as they leave no compositional signature. No-one dominates as egos are checked at the door. Although theatrical elements occur in performance, particularly from Petit who echoes his countrywoman Joëlle Léandre in his use of voice, they do not impinge on the recorded sound.
Even when the instrumentation goes through constant flux, the collective pulls off the trick of maintaining momentum. Och's episodic "By Any Other Name (for William Kentridge)" provides a case in point as cello and both reeds revolve around an elegiac broadly sketched melody, before a scratchy section which ultimately gives way to strummed koto and guzheng, suggesting a deconstructed blues. Further metamorphoses take place before a return to the two horns in loose fugue. Extended techniques are used sparingly and unobtrusively, such as Kassap's bass clarinet multiphonics at the outset of "Humeur de Terre." Each of the selections is characterized by restraint, which makes the sequences when they do all come together stand out in sharp relief, serving as emphatic punctuations in a subtle but rewarding discourse.
Track Listing
Mountain; Wine; Humeur du Dessous; By Any Other Name (for William Kentridge); Humeur de Terre; Road; Humeur de l'Esprit.
Personnel
Didier Petit: cello, voice; Larry Ochs: tenor & sopranino saxophones; Miya Masaoka: koto; Xu Fengxia: guzheng, voice; Sylvain Kassap: clarinets.
Album information
Title: Humeurs | Year Released: 2014 | Record Label: Rogue Art