Akusmi: Fleeting Future

Anyone who enjoys the landmark albums that are Terry Riley's minimalist manifesto In C (Columbia, 1968) and Jon Hassell's fourth world masterpiece Dream Theory In Malaya (EG, 1981) is in for a big treat. Actually, a triple treat. French-born, London-based composer and producer Pascal Bideau's entrancing Fleeting Future is redolent of not one of those albums, but both of them, and as a bonus, Bideau's disc swings in a way that Riley and Hassell's do not. Along with tenor saxophonist Oded Tzur's Isabela (ECM), Fleeting Future is one of 2022's must-hear albums.

Akusmi comprises four musicians but it is essentially multi-layered solo Bideau, who plays alto saxophone, bass guitar, flutes, gongs, guitar, percussion, piano and synthesisers. Inspired in part by the gamelan and gong music he heard while travelling in Indonesia, Bideau recorded the album in his home studio between 2017 and 2019 and then sent the files to Berlin, where alto and soprano saxophonist Ruth Velten, drummer Daniel Brandt and trombonist Florian Juncker added their parts. Most of the eight tracks sound through-composed, though some instrumental lines also sound like they might be improvised. But given the amount of overdubbing and editing and gerneral post-production finessing that Bideau has employed, which is of Teo Macero / Miles Davis proportions, the distinction beween pre-written and in-the-moment is irrelevant.

The Hassell and gamelan influences are explicit on only some tracks. Echoes of Riley are more pervasive. Fleeting Future's focus on mid to high registers, by way of soprano and alto saxophones, flutes and keyboards, mirrors Riley's foregrounding of clarinet, flute and keyboards on In C. Riley also used a (lower register) trombone, and so does Bideau, but for depth rather than keynote sounds, again much like Riley. The balletic agility of Fleeting Future is also reminiscent of In C, while the occasional borderline chromatic dissonances Bideau adds to some tracks separates his work from that of Riley. Like Riley, Bideau is also adept at ramping up kineticism in a way Hassell was not, preferring for the most part to remain chilled.

But enough with the comparisons. Ultimately, Bideau's album transcends its formative influences and stands as a fresh and individual work. It might never have happened if In C and Dream Theory In Malaya had not come before it, but it has its own voice. From the opening bars it is apparent that something special is about to unfold, and it sure enough does.

Fleeting Future is a dead cert for at least one album of the year list.

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