Si c’est Not the Music, alors qu’est-ce que c’est? La parole (en concert) est au bassiste électrique Éric Normand et au saxophoniste (soprano) Philippe Lauzier. Tous les deux jouent aussi de la clarinette.

Le duo est en concert en mars 2014. Dans une usine désaffectée, à en croire la réverbération qui transforme le bourdon de basse, et au milieu d’un essaim de sculptures métalliques (j’ai cru entendre des percussions, alors?), à en croire le sax qui s’y accroche. On pourrait même penser que l’environnement est dangereux, avec ses grésillements électriques, ses renvois de feedbacks par les murs… Malgré tout, dans le Centre Aberdeen de Moncton, Canada, Normand et Lauzier font les fiers à (tour de) bras. Et leur «non-musique» a de quoi l’être aussi.

Although the text here in front of me says there are three new releases on Tour de Bras, a label from Quebec, there are in fact on two in the mailer, of which one will be handled by someone else sometime soon. The other one is a duo disc of Philippe Lauzier (bass clarinet, soprano saxophone) and Éric Normand (bass and ‘caisse claire’, of which I couldn’t find a proper translation). The three pieces here were recorded in concert in March 2014 and the label defines the music as ‘chamber noise’. Both of these players have a history in the world of improvised music, having played with Martin Tetreault and Jim Denley among others. The music here could be labeled as ‘heavy’; ‘heavy’ as in noise based. Lots of this revolves around the scraping of sounds, with some added reverb to make it all a bit heavier. It peeps and scratches, likes feedback; like fingers on a blackboard, like the very early Organum at times. Not something for the weak of hearth, but if you are accepting then an excellent sound world opens up. The sound of what seems a 1000 violins being scraped simultaneously, but this duo also knows how to pull back, slow down and space out, such as in the second part. Tour de Bras? Tour de force is more like it. Excellent stuff.