Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Pascal Battus & Christine Sehnaoui Abdelnour: Ichnites

297

Pascal Battus & Christine Sehnaoui Abdelnour: Ichnites

By

Sign in to view read count
Pascal Battus & Christine Sehnaoui Abdelnour: Ichnites
On Ichnites Pascal Battus plays rotating surfaces; these consist of small motorised components from inside old Walkmans or cassette players, which are used as exciters on different objects reacting as vibrators and resonators : sheets of paper, cardboards, plastic, wooden, metal, polystyrene pieces, and stems connected to cymbals. The results are small resonant sounds that hover somewhere between percussion and drone.

Alongside Battus, Christine Sehnaoui Abdelnour plays alto sax with such restraint, care and attention to detail that its sounds are hardly there at times. Adopting a range of blowing techniques, she extracts very different tones from the sax but never displays any great exuberance. This is completely fitting, as Battus produces sounds of such delicacy that they would be very easy to drown out. As with many successful improvising duos, Battus and Abdelnour mesh together so well that it can be hard to tell where the boundary between them lies.

The YouTube clip gives an accurate feel for the album as it was recorded live three days after the album itself was recorded. Most of all, that clip serves to emphasise that this duo provides a visual spectacle that is a natural accompaniment to the music, not least because it helps clarify the sources of the sounds.

This combination of sound and spectacle is reminiscent of the show put on by trombonist Mathias Forge and Olivier Toulemonde on acoustic objects; maybe it's a Gallic thing. However, as with Forge and Toulemonde, the visuals are a bonus, and this recording stands up well in its own right without them.

Track Listing

Égranages & pelange; Fouilles & rongement; Estocade & Coulées; Reliefs de repas; Voies & allures.

Personnel

Pascal Battus: rotating surfaces; Christine Sehnaoui Abdelnour: alto saxophone.

Album information

Title: Ichnites | Year Released: 2010 | Record Label: Potlatch Records

Comments

Tags


For the Love of Jazz
Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who create it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

You Can Help
To expand our coverage even further and develop new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for a modest $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination will vastly improve your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Sensual
Rachel Z
Over and Over
Tony Monaco Trio
Love Is Passing Thru
Roberto Magris

Popular

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.