Dan Warburton, Jean-Luc Guionnet and Eric La Casa | Metro Pre Saint Gervais
Chloe | CD
"The Parisian Metro has long attracted artists, writers and musicians: Joseph Beuys spent his honeymoon riding the subways of the French capital; Queneau and Cortazar were fascinated by the sociology of its interconnecting networks; and countless millions of travellers - tourists and local residents - have experienced its unique atmosphere and acoustics."
This overall brilliant release documenting the serendipitous melding and blurring of improvised violin (performed by Dan Warburton) and alto saxophone (Jean-Luc Guionnet) with happenstance occurrences and ambiences from within the underground subway station, Metro Pre Saint Gervais in Paris, at times sounds like it was composed and mixed in a studio, when in fact, was wonderfully recorded live by sound artist Eric La Casa.
Beautiful long acoustic drones, oscillations, twitterings, and yes, the occasional squonks and squeaks, all mixing and flowing in tune, timbre, and meter with various day to day workings of the subway station. The spontaneous voice-overs and underpinnings by various passers by and the subway employees talking over the intercom system evoke the sense that these recordings could have been well controlled electroacoustic compositions or cleverly made sound designs for film, TV and radio.
This release presents two recordings, both made on July 10th 2001, that manage to capture what I can only imagine to be a perfect example of what most improv musicians dream about having properly documented under such circumstances.
[DL]
