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Poolplayers
Way Beneath the Surface |
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Recorded July 2006.| 9 Tracks total 57:52.| 24bit48kHz recording mixed in analog to stereo & 5.1
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Arve Henriksen, trumpet, vocals, electronics
Benoît Delbecq, piano, bass station
Lars Juul, drums and electronics
Steve Argüelles, electronic assistance and obstacles (usine, sherman filter, elec.).
On
their debut record this European improvising supergroup makes
captivating music that erases distinctions between jazz, electronics,
and ambient/soundscape styles. Henriksen is acclaimed for his unique
vocalized trumpet work in the Norwegian ambient/noise group
Supersilent. Adding Juul's jazz-inflected drumming, Delbecq's prepared
piano, and Argüelles' sampled loops and live electronic mutations,
Poolplayers conjure a floating, hermetic beauty. The recording creates
an almost holographic effect in both stereo and multi-channel -
audiophiles into post-rock and avant-jazz will respond.
(JazzLoft) |
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Artwork by Marcelline Delbecq
Photos by Guy Le Querrec
Layout by Sylvie Astié @dokidoki
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Notes on Way Beneath the Surface
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Poolplayers
is another surprising manifestation of a direction in free improvised
music that’s distinctive but hard to define. It’s more an
attitude than a genre. The music being made by different groups might
sound almost unrelated, but the approach to creating it has something
in common. Its language might come from avant jazz, post-rock,
ambient/electronica, interactive computer music, “ethnic”
music, process music, contemporary classical composed music, or almost
anywhere. It’s often “slow,” on the analogy of slow
food perhaps, relishing the synergy of individual flavors and the
process of fine-tuning things rather than foregrounding the flash and
brilliance of instant creation. It’s a music of the senses that
also penetrates to more obscure levels of consciousness, approaching at
times dream states or ecstatic experiences. Poolplayers make music on
the introverted end of this nebulous movement, exploring the
interaction of live electronics and their own personal languages of
extended techniques to create soundscapes that exert a palpable
fascination.
The group came together in France in 2005, and its members are all well known on the European scene.
Arve
Henriksen is in the Norwegian ambient/noise/improv ensemble Supersilent
and is acclaimed worldwide for his trumpet/vocal styles, influenced by
shakuhachi music, Mongolian overtone singing and other Asian sounds as
well as jazz, and modified by electronics. Benoît Delbecq is a
master of improvised prepared piano and has collaborated on projects or
leads/co-leads groups with many outstanding European, Canadian and
American musicians (and has recorded extensively for Songines). He and
British drummer Steve Argüelles, who lives in Paris and runs the
electro-jazz label Plush, have worked together since the early
‘90s, currently in the duos Ambitronix and PianoBook. Lars Juul
is the co-leader of two long-lasting Danish jazz/improvised music
groups, Sound of Choice and Takuan.
So what to say about the music? Delbecq attempts to
characterize their unique blend: “Making this music feels like a
deep concentration, and a deep unconsciousness, both at the same time.
First of all, there’s a certain slowness, an idea of North, where
winter makes time feel different. So the momentum in this music is
actually slow, it’s the pace we first played, the very first
rehearsal. When I listen to it it brings me to a mental halt or
something, and is very emotional, quite funeral-like at some point
– imaginary anthems or prayers….Harmonically, Arve and I
have a very intense communication, one that’s purely instinctive.
Arve knows a lot of Norwegian folklore, and I’ve been working on
imaginary folklore for a long time, so I guess we’ve connected in
that domain. I don’t often use diatonic chord progressions,
I’m trying to make them sound mysterious, with a different
harmonic pace, and Arve constantly offers an open door to
shift .” Arve suggests the harmonic links are to
contemporary
and classical music, and adds, “The trumpet has a vast potential
for tone and sound variations that we still have not heard. I was
astonished by the sound of the shakuhachi and its meditative and
minimalistic expressive quality, and my trumpet sound has gradually
moved along in the spirit of the shakuhachi. With electronics I can
make sounds that can be difficult to do with voice and trumpet, but I
also try to copy the sounds from electronics to trumpet.” Lars
uses live sampling and effects to extend his spectrum of acoustic
colors produced by skins, wood, stone, metal and plastic, while Steve
samples and processes the other three, routing their mic inputs to
delays, loops, frequency filters and pitch shifters, mixing his
time-warp mutations back into the blend (there’s no subsequent
remixing): “I have as much influence on the group as the
instrumentalists, who are highly attuned to the input I’m
suggesting, either as a reinterpretation of themselves or an addition
to the setting.”
It’s a music of gesture, texture, expansion/proliferation of
sounds in space and time, overlapping intensities – and the
audiophile recording and surround mix take the listener right inside
it. Benoît likens the process of making it to searching for
jewels or gold: “My one and only direction in all my work is to
find the right people and find the right music to play together. When
we try, we find something – and it’s a very precious
feeling to realize this band has a rare thing. It’s a very happy
feeling that can be heard in the essence of the music.”
For bios and more information on the performers:
www.arvehenriksen.no,
www.delbecq.net/bd/bd2.html, http://hjem.get2net.dk/larsjuul,
www.plush-internet.org/artist_arguelles.htm.
The complete interview is at www.songlines.com/interviews/Poolplayers.html |
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