Peter Orins: Empty Orchestras

The debut solo album of French, Lille-based drummer Peter Orins establishes new and bold relationships between the human musician and the musical-electronic machinery. Orins, known for his remarkable role and original compositions for the Japanese-French quartet KAZE as well as for his involvement in local outfits as Flu(o), TOC and the Circum Grand Orchestra, designed an electronic device, autonomous enough to intervene and influence his playing in almost unpredictable ways.

The four pieces may be called accompanied solos, all featuring different manners of communicating with the electronic device. This device adds a dimension of structured surprise and danger. It expands, amplifies, transforms and deforms randomly and accidentally the sonic gestures of Orins and charges each of the pieces with bold elements of disorder. In such interplay the conventional roles are reversed—Orins the improvising drummer introduces linear, repetitive rhythmic conceptions while the device's treatments blur these conceptions and swirls the repetitive pulses into arresting yet chaotic molds.

The first piece, "Random Unpack" still investigates the possible sonic envelope and the new, invented timbres of skins, cymbals, and electronic waves. The second, "Unauthorized Path," suggests futuristic tribal rhythm that accumulates weird resonant, abstract metallic sounds till these sounds shape the course of this piece and drown it in an electronic, trance- like dancing storm. The third piece, "Frozen Range," sketches an abstract, icy soundscape, minimalist and suggestive in its gentle and quiet touches, human and machine-produced. This piece highlights the remarkable command of Orins on the vibrating cymbals. The last one, "Bad Arguments" is the most playful one, as if Orins and the device have reached a peaceful understanding and opted for a patient, collaborative interplay.

Highly imaginative and original work.