Separated by 1,000 KMs and speaking a different language, the collaboration of Quebec bassist Eric Normand and Australian saxophonist Jim Denley, both dedicated experimenters, share a common aesthetic in free improvisation as they release their third album: five dialogs using reeds, electric bass, drums, objects and tools to create unusual sonic conversations.
Label: Tour de Bras Catalog ID: TDB89032cd Squidco Product Code: 26761
Format: CD Condition: New Released: 2018 Country: France Packaging: Cardstock Foldover in a clear vinyl sleeve Tracks 1-3 recorded at IMMO, in Ottawa, Canada, on November 23rd, 2016.
Track 4 recorded at Librarie St-Jean-Baptist, in Quebec City, Canada, on November 25th, 2016.
Track 5 recorded at Le Malterie, in Lille, France, on March 21st, 2018.
"Normally a music group's recorded output is a tip of an iceberg - most of the music played goes undocumented.
Eric Normand and Jim Denley first played together on the 25th of May 2010 in Rimourski, Quebec, a recording of the music that night became the CD Transition De Phase. The next time was also in Rimourski - once again at the Coop Paradis. A recording of that music will become the LP, Plant.
So far, all the music they have played together, (apart from a sound check), will become audio objects, this is an unusual situation, that says something about the world we live in now.
The two musicians live more than 10000 Kms apart separated by more than the Pacific, (their native tongues are different), but they are involved in a music practice that allows them to come together, without rehearsal and shared experience, to collectively create. This is true 'world music'.
We've all heard the cliché that 'music is a universal language', but in the past musicians have had to learn each others systems - the sounds, scales, harmonies, rhythms and structures - to create cohesively together.
But Jim and Erics' 'world music' is not about learning each others music systems and rehearsing to create co-ordinated expected outcomes - it is rather, about the acceptance and co-existence of the Other. There is no 'compromise' in this coming together, each musician is able to be himself, with local influences undiluted, but with enough shared methodology to work in parallel.
Jim Denley, one of Australia's foremost improvisers of new music, was born in 1957 in the country town of Bulli in New South Wales, and grew up in Wollongong. Wind instruments and electronics are core elements of his musical output."-Plant