Thursday, October 15, 2015

MarsaFouty, Concerts

Jean-Marc Foussat is one of the most inventive and important electroacousticians on the European avant-improv scene today. Fred Marty is a double bassist of distinction. MarsaFouty is the combination of the two together. Concerts (FOU CD 011) consists of two long live performances of the duo at the beginning of this year.

It is a explorative program of subtlety and wide sonic expanse. Foussat generates a soundscape of altered acoustic and electronic events via analogue synth and other devices. Marty responds with bowed and pizzicato bass improvisations that extend the panorama and create independent lines and textures. The result is live new music in the advanced realm, more so than "jazz" per se.

These two performances bring us two contrasting essays in timbre and flow, "psychoactive" two-way interactions that give the listener a sort of narrative in abstractions, a story of a non-verbal situational sort.

As such this is an excellent contribution to the now decades-old tradition of spontaneous new music compositions that we can trace back to MEV, AMM, Il Gruppo, and perhaps some of Stockhausen's group electro-improvisations from the '70s. MarsaFouty go their own way with this "tradition" and give us a satisfying and fascinating narrative panorama.

If you are not familiar with this sort of new music, this may startle you, as any of it would. But it is well inspired and effective, poetic and dynamic whether you are an experienced listener in this realm or a beginner. It gives you a good start if you are new to it all; it provides you with a fine addition if you are an acolyte.

Happy listening!

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