Nick Mott, Audion, no. 42, March 1, 2000
Georges Perec was a novelist and film maker from Paris (born 1936) and the music on Je me souviens is inspired by musical references from his book of the same name, a retrospective of French popular music from the 1950’s and 1960’s. As good time carnival music, show music with an inebriated air, it’s executed very well — it’s busy and it swings — but has limited appeal. There is a lot of French music that has taken elements similar to those here, and I think it works better when those elements biend into a more experimental music, as on the second piece from this CD, which is much more interesting, veering towards live Henry Cow or Zamla Mammaz Manna.
