Marc Ducret: Palm Sweat — Marc Ducret Plays The Music Of Tim Berne

There is a through line working within Palm Sweat -Marc Ducret Plays the Music of Tim Berne. The guitarist covers compositions passed to him by composer and saxophonist Tim Berne as he was leaving Brooklyn for his home in France just as the Covid19 lockdowns were beginning. The connections between Ducret and Berne are quite obvious. The guitarist has toured and recorded in many Berne ensembles including Bloodcount, Caos Totale, Big Satan, Science Friction Band, and Snakeoil, plus Berne's label Screwgun has also released Ducret's original music. Just as Berne has championed the music of Julius Hemphill, artists are campaigning for Berne covering his compositions. Recent releases include Matt Mitchell's Førage (Screwgun, 2017), Gregg Belisle-Chi Performing The Music Of Tim Berne/Koi (Relative Pitch, 2021), and Gordon Grdina The Music Of Tim Berne: Oddly Enough (Attaboygirl Records, 2022).

Like Hemphill's compositions, Berne's music is unconventional and idiosyncratic. It goes without saying that Ducret's interpretations are cut from the same cloth. However, this solo recording is not really a solo recording. Ducret does deliver a solo performance with "About This Recording," but he mostly prefers to overdub himself with an array of instruments; he plays acoustic and electric guitars, acoustic and electric bass, a daxophone, percussion, a suitcase (!), and also adds voice, his own and a sample of Berne's. His long association with the composer breeds a familiarity, a better word might be conversancy. The three part "Curls/Palm Sweat/Mirth Of The Cool" opens with thundering guitars, à la Sunn O))), before morphing into complex math equation music and eventually some hand drumming accompanies his multitracked guitars.

Ducret certainly spent time deliberating over these compositions. The details are evident even in the simplest solo guitar outings such as "The Iceman," where he labors to extract every gem and illuminate each notation. Ducret also expands beyond himself, adding instruments. "Stutter Step" opens with heavy sounds, not unlike helicopter blades, plus a single guitar note before switching to acoustic sounds and finally woodwinds. Fabrice Martinez' trumpet opens "Static" with acoustic guitar and bass before segueing into multitracked guitars, chain sounds, and voices. For Ducret, one man plus one pandemic lockdown equals a multiverse of sound.