(Le) CLeUb, Placard, CLeUb

august 08, 2009.

Though by now clocking in at 12 years and gone well into its teens, le Placard has remained free, elusive, anarchic and obstinately underground. For this year's traditional 72 hours parisian summer edition, Erik Minkkinnen's 'international headphone festival' joined forces with Le CLeUB, that moved not so long ago from the rue des Bluets in the 11th to the 20th arrondissement.

It proved to be a fine liaison: entering Au Vaisseau (Le CLeUB's new space in the rue Stendhal) which contained le placard and arriving au placard which was au CLeUB was a homecoming indeed ...

Diktat performed in the old au CLeUB last year, on saturday november 15th, in a quartet formation with Anthony Carcone. A memorable evening that was. Memorable because it was the weekend that Le CLeUB definitely had to close its doors in the rue des Bluets, and the collective running it were facing an uncertain future. Memorable also because of the fine backline that we were able to use that evening, which gave our 'wall of sound' great - and unusual - transparency. At the same time I discovered the hitherto unknown pleasure of performing as a dicta-drummer, which ever since I consider to be a new vocation.

There is a, very fine indeed, live audio recording of Diktat Au CLeUB awaiting release in some form or other. But there was of course also Rébus' electric eye, which retained the great Ambiance during set-up and soundcheck.

It is easy to imagine the next picture to be a snapshot of the Le CLeUB audience attentively listening to Diktat performing the soundtrack to Rébus' uTube. But it is not. It is the interior of the new CLeUB, au Vaisseau, and I took it shortly after arriving there sunday evening july 26th, with nothing much else besides the two dictaphones and the two tapes (see the picture above) that I had brought along for use in the Assemblée Générale of our Ana-R collective, programmed to be held as part of the grand placard, that evening between 21h and 21h30.

Apart from the AG Ana-R, what they were looking at that sunday evening were, for instance, a fine electric duet by FlexRex and Cosmo Helectra, just before they were joined by Rébus, David Steinberg and myself for the AG Ana-R.

Or they sat listening to solo performances by Julie Rousse, or by David Fenech ... all of who get listed here because they happened to perform right before (Flex and Cosmo) and after (Julie and David) the ("Noteworthy, dear W., noteworthy indeed ...") AG of a full five piece Ana-R ... (Click to enlarge the small pictures, for more visual ambiance.)

Most of the 120+ half hour performances of the 72 hours come without an acoustic component to the sounds produced. This, together with the most of the times unusually quiet and attentive audience that sits listening through headphones, accounts for a rather peculiar atmosphere. A bit as if one has entered a church. And whenever someone for whatever reason is found raising his or her voice, people will be seen urging the loud-mouth to be quiet, by shushing him or showing her an index finger laid across one's lips ...
(Those in dire need of blabbering will therefore step outside ...)

I guess I will not be the only placard habitué that enjoys attending big chunks of a placard's events without wearing headphones, and listening not so much to the music that is being performed as to the mechanics of performance ...

There is probably little in this world, at least nothing that I know of, that is anything like a parisian 72 hours placard. These are very unique events. If I have the courage and can come up with the necessary energy, maybe one of the next times I will attempt a slot-by-slot chronology of the full 72 hours. It would surely be worth the effort ... I have been toying with the idea for a couple of years now, but never got round to doing it. It didn't happen now. Not this year. Maybe the next one ...

We did a second slot towards the very end of this year's 72 hours. That was on monday july 27th, at 16h ... For the occasion Rébus and I were joined by no less than £PcM, who happened to be in Paris with his family on a short summer holiday-trip ...

After our somewhat chaotic Léo Toystoy's trio there was one more slot ... Then the clock showed 17h.

And it suddenly all ... stopped.

That is sort of surreal ...

[ For more images and (!) sounds of the 12th Parisian grand placard, have a peek at Rébus' uTube Report. ]

notes __ ::
(*) The 72 hour placard Au Vaisseau began on friday july 24th at 17h, and ended next monday july 27th at 17h) [ ^ ]

tags: Placard, Paris

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