Zang-ussi

may 17, 2007.

Though of course with ookoi we regularly burst out in lustily sing-song, and hum, rumble and grunt at the very top of our voices, almost none of the many other performances I have been involved in over the last few years have included real life voices ... ( * ) ... Cosmodrone, Diktat, solo, and all impromptu duo's and trio's ... Whenever there were vocals to be heard, these stemmed from recordings.

This changed when Mme. Z joined us last march for our Eclipse @ La Comète concert.
Now that was an experiment ... with results that were encouraging though not conclusive ... and hence called for more experiments.
It was therefore that, on the occasion of Rinus van Alebeek's current european rambling leading him through Paris together with his italian friend Patrizia Oliva, better known as singer Madame P., there was Ladies & Gentlemen at the Project 101 ...

Blinde Kinder's Raphael Raccuia played his home-built guitar-bass, with movable neck, and I used a cracklebox and my guitar, with as only amplification the two battery powered mini-amps that FPCM and me had bought in Rotterdam, on friday april 20th, during our excursion to the DEAF07 exhibition. You see them in the picture: on the left (the green one) a Danelectro HoneyTone, and on its right and even smaller, a deep red Smokey amplifier. The Smokey actually is a fine feedback device when used with, for example, an electric guitar. It fits in the palm of your hand, which enables an easy and flexible manipulation of its small speaker above and around the instrument's pick-ups. Before and after the performances there sounded another 'sound toy', the funny blue Amithaba chanting box that the Buddhist Society in Sunnyvale was so kind as to send me when I asked them to. In that small twilit cellar cave right in the middle of Pigalle, together it added up to something that definitely got near post-something.
[ Rinus dropped post-structuralist in one of his blogs. Well, there is a certain logic to that thought, ending up in a Pigalle cave after a cross-hexagon day-trip, and recording east-european girls taking gothic pics on Père Lachaise tombs, and all that jazz ... :-) ... Ourselves we'd rather opt for post-french, though... as in post-election France, say ... Rébus shot a three minute video sequence of Mme. Z.'s set, which is up at YouTube's. "Not the best three minutes though, I think," Rébus said. "The most interesting parts where when Mme. Z. was singing monotonously in a low, relatively soft, voice; that made me think of Harry Partch and what one generally assumes antique Greek music must have sounded like ..." It is the sole bit of recorded documentation of the evening... You had to be there ... ]

Ah, but they were pretty exhausted, Rinus and Madame P., with two days of little sleep and lots of travel. First from Italy to Marseille, then on from Marseille to Paris, where they arrived at Project 101 just shortly before the concert. It may explain why Rinus' performance - while special as ever - that evening seemed to be just that bit more restrained, that bit more introvert than on other occasions ...
Shortly after the beginning of his set he showed us a cassette tape, and explained that there is an A side, and a B side. "It's the B side that you are listening to now," Rinus told us, and then walked out to have a pee.
When he came back from having satisfied this need, he sat down next to his four track cassette machine and started to fumble around a bit with the controls. He cocked his ears and listened, then began fumbling again, as if hesitating about what to do next. He rubbed his chin and then looked up at the audience. "The A side actually is very nice ...," he said.
These again were memorable words ...

Madame P.'s performance was hindered by the flash light of a well meaning but somewhat over-enthusiastic photographer, a broken contact microphone, unfit cables and loose contacts, which must have accounted for a punkyness at times that I rather liked, but was not intended.
But as all's well that ends well, on saturday P. and R. woke up to a full and sunny day of rest, which they spend at Père Lachaise (in Rinus' words: "with the death and the tourists") where they regained strength to put to great use on sunday april 29th, in La Générale.
We were that sunday precisely half way the two rounds of the french presidential elections, reason for Rébus (who btw did a fabulous organizing and cooking job) to bill the event as the official commemoration of Erik Satie's joining of Jean Jaurès' socialist party.

Sure as hell thus that the man's ghost hung out there, that sunny late sunday afternoon and evening. All bones and knuckles he was, with a top-hat, loosely draped on one of the worn sofa's, zipping red bio wine and crunching good miam-miam, with that slightly ironic wink now and then at the occasional girl passing ... Do you see him sitting there? I saw him, but failed to read his mind. So who knows what his thoughts were? ...
On FlexRex doing his Erik Satyre?
When David turned on his Boring Machines?
And what about the impromptu Mme Z. Combo, with Rébus, HarS and Bordé each handling some type of strings, and the Missus Z. in the midst of that strung out turmoil voiced up to an imperturbable rendering of "On dirait que c'est toi", a french chanson from the end of the 19th century? Ah, Erik surely must have known the Yvette Guibert who sung that diddle in the days that both were flesh and not yet ghosts!
And then there was Diktat, abstract and controlled. How about Diktat? He would have had to admit, at least, that there really is nothing else like it, now wouldn't he?

Oh, and by the way, weren't you gay, monsieur Satie? Sure that you would have loved Madame P.'s act in your lifetimes ... And would that be any different in afterlife?
Erik Satyre and Boring Machines then, now ensemble?
Or the fine duet by Jean and Rinus, who plunged the sounds on his cassettes into the reverberating depths of his effect box to make them ring like a vintage analog synthesizer to end the commemoration of a fait divers in your life?
Sure you dug the wine, but how about the music?

Tell me, did you care?
No?
Oh, but of course you did ! ...

notes __ ::
(*) The only exceptions I can think of are Didier's and Blandine's interventions that were part of parts of our appearances at la MACH'Inante ... [ ^ ]

Washing, dirtying, multiplexing

may 16, 2007.

Les Koeurs Purs launch the third edition of the Lavage Salissage Multiplexage festival, in their MACH'Inante (that is: Maison des Arts et des Cultures Hybrides Indépendante: an "independent base for hybrid arts and cultures"). You may have stumbled upon earlier reports on happenings at this not-at-all-like-any-other spot in the heart of Montreuil, here and there in the SoundBlog ... Personally I still recall with much pleasure and satisfaction our soirée Cosmodronique there, late 2005 ... And, strange though this may seem, over the years, ana-R has become a MACH'Inante veteran ...
As always questing for those sudden moments of coercive vibration that lift collective efforts above the sum of the individual contributions, artistic directors Blandine Scelles et Didier Calléja this year again invite musicians, comedians, visual artists, poets and others to invade and live la MACH'Inante, in the creation of (a) collective work(s), to be presented to the public later this month, from may 17th till may 19th, and from may 31st till june 2nd ... Lavage Salissage Multiplexage ...

In their own words:

Aujourd’hui, il faut laver partout, par tous les moyens ; décortiquer, extraire, ex tracter du silence la souffrance...

Le désir de travailler en collectif est une action éminemment politique.

Il faut un lavage du corps collectif, intime, social. Une grande lessive du prêt à penser, du prêt à baiser, du prêt à consommer, du pré carré de la pensée à angle droit et des actions à angles morts. Laver à rebrousse poil, à contre sens, à l’envers, renverser les idées, se penser à l’endroit, à l’endroit où il faut agir aujourd’hui.

I plan to be there, at least on the 17th and 19th, to work on new acquisitions for the Found Tapes Exhibition, and together with Rébus explore the process of the writing of an essay, on electro acoustic improvisation (EAI) as a metalanguage ...

[ The Lavage Salissage Multiplexage 2007 festival is open to the public from thursday may 17th till saturday may 19th, and from thursday may 31st till sunday june 2nd, every evening as of 20h30. The address is 26 rue Rochebrune, Montreuil. Call +33.1.77 60 37 37 for more information ... ]

We were at la MACH'Inante on monday evening, may 7th, when Didier summarized some of the thoughts that had been circulating and thrown around earlier that day, during the talking and planning for the events, that actually within and through this planning and talking are meant to take shape ... He explained how this year instead of on lavage, the artistic processes should maybe rather be centered on a dé-lavage ...
Here's a trans-(de-)(s)cription of some of the words one could taste that evening in la MACH'Inante's cour ... :

DE LA DE-LAVAGE A LA CIS-AVANTGARDE
(TRANS-[DE-][S]CRIPTION)

Dé-dier : La première chose que j’ai dit à Marie est … on est entre des gens, au fait … l’artistique, ça vient quelque part après dans ce travail. J’aimerais qu’on soit des gens. Voilà. On est des gens, et on se retrouve dans cette micro-société, qui est la MACH'Inante – c’est une micro-société – et … eh … comment nous en tant que « artistes » – ce qui ne veut strictement rien dire – on peut vivre ensemble … donc, eh … voilà !
Thomas : C’est tout à fait juste …
Dé-dier : Ca sera vraiment intéressant d’étudier ça, mais l’étudier avec nos objets, avec notre matos, avec notre son … on peut tout imaginer … pourquoi on fait ça ? … pourqoui on est là ? … qu’est-ce qu’on veut que se passe avec le publique ? … avec les gens qui viennent là … parce qu’y va avoir des gens, et eh … c’est vachement important … je ne sais pas … qu’est-ce que c’est la performance, qu’est-ce que c’est toutes ces choses là … ? … qu’est-ce que c’est cettes cassettes … ?!
Thomas : Tu vois, là, suivant cette proposition que tu as, là, j’ai l’impression qu’on va vraiment vivre la MACH'Inante … parce que moi, en fait – j’ai jamais osé le dire – mais j’ai toujours pensé que, là, il manque quelque chose … quelque chose de plus spontané, de plus interactive … une réelle interactivité, quoi …
Dé-dier : Ce que je voudrais c’est, voilà … c’est qu’on arrive à être libre ensemble pour pouvoir faire cette chose … et utiliser les matériaux. Mais pas forcément le son, pas forcément … enfin, ça peut être toute sorte de chose. On n’est pas obligé d’utiliser du son, ou les choses habituelles qu’on utilise … A deux c’était peut-être plus simple de pouvoir parler de mots, tout ça, mais j’aurai envie qu’on balance comme ça des choses par rapport à ce dé-cor, cette dé-réalité, cette dé-lavage … on a dé-jà pensé aussi à la génétique .. aussi … Marie a parlé du corps inutile, de tenter d’é-chapper à tout contrôle … et ça c’est quelque chose de hyper-intéressante ... et il y a aussi la perte, travailler sur la perte …
Marie : Perte de consistance …
Dé-dier : Abandonner, la folie, la perte de soi … séparer … dé-fi … et on avait les pertes blanches …
Marie : Les leucorrhées …
Rébus : Pertes blanches, c’est pendant la grossesse ?
Dé-dier : Ah non, c’est tout le temps, hein ? Chaque fois t’as … t’as … à chaque …
Marie : Pertes rouges, c’est métroragie … pertes blanches, les leucorrhées … Ce n’est pas pendant les règles, hein, c’est … avant … mais après ça peut-être des problèmes, eh, gynéco quoi … T’en as un peu avant … mais ce n’est pas pour tout le monde … générallement c’est quand tu commences à avoir tes règles …
Jean-Marc : Ce qui m’intéresse, c’est la côté organique ; car moi je suis un peu organique dans mon costume.
Dé-dier : On a parlé de tentative de resonance au niveau de la performance. On s’était dit, oui, bon, l’endroit où on travaille, c’est la performance. Mais qu’est-ce que c’est la performance ? On a essayé de chercher … il y a beaucoup à chercher … des tentetives : … essayer d’acceder à un engagement … que c’était un engagement … il y avait dé-buter, dé-placer … il y avait une histoire qui a raconté Marie, par rapport au qu’est-ce qui est organique, qu’est-ce qui est inorganique … La disparition aussi, la sensation d’être perceptible … dé-fixer … comment dé-s'organiser, dé-matérialiser … De pouvoir toucher … et c’est peut-être le son: comment toucher le son, toucher justement la transparence inorganique du son – qui est complètement organique de par ailleurs … Enfin … je ne sais pas, ce sont des choses, en gros, qui peuvent concerner tout outil artistique ! Le trans-lavage, le trans-parent – c’est rigolo, parce que ça parle des parents – et après on est parti dans la trance … ou le trans … trans-port, trans-former, eh .. trans-génique, c’est à dire ce qui traverse … et du coup, j’ai dé-jà dit, il y a un mouvement trans-avantgardiste qui date des années 1970 avec les italiens, comme Cucchi et Paladino …
Flex : Et il y a les trans-alpins …
Dé-dier : Il y a plein de choses comme ça … Au fait c’est peut-être des petites choses qu’on veut travailler, chacun pour soi … où pas … trans-pirer, trans-later aussi, trans-late, les langages …
Rébus : C’est quoi au fait, la différence entre trans et cis ?
HarS : Au de là … en deça …
Flex : Comme les cis-alpins …
Dé-dier : Alors on pourrait s’appeler … eh … la cis-avantgarde … ? …
[ ... ]
HarS : Voilà …
Flex : Voilà …

[ Next related SB-entry: Wash (Not Wash) ]