The Squid's Ear Magazine


Plant (Jim Denley / Eric Normand): II (Tour de Bras)

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.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Jim Denley-alto saxophone, flutes, tools

Eric Normand-electric bass, drum, objects


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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.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"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



This album has been reviewed on our magazine:

The Squid
The Squid's Ear!

Artist Biographies

"Jim Denley was born in Bulli, Australia in January 1957. Wind instruments and electronics are core elements of his musical output.

An emphasis on spontaneity, site-specific work and collaboration has been central to his work. He sees no clear distinctions between his roles as instrumentalist, improviser and composer.

Collaborations, his radio feature for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, won the Prix Italia in 1989. His interest in radio has continued with the ABC over 17 years. In May 2006 he recorded a program for the ABC in the Budawang Mountains, south-west of Sydney, which has now been made into a CD, Through Fire, Crevice and the Hidden Valley. This received an Honorary Mention in the Digital Musics category of the Prix Ars Electronica 2008. He has been to the Budawangs again to record a new program for the ABC, Co-existence. The ABC will enter the 2006 recordings in Prix Italia 2009.

In 1990 he was a member of Derek Bailey's Company for a week of concerts in London. He co-founded the electroacoustic text/music group Machine for Making Sense.

In 2006 and 2007 he received a Fellowship from the Australia Council for the Arts to research and develop his concept of Meta instrument. As part of this he formed the group Metalog - they toured Australia July 2008.

He has played throughout Australia, Europe, Japan and the US with artists such as Chris Abrahams, Clare Cooper, Keith Rowe, Joel Stern, Robbie Avenaim, Jon Rose, John Butcher, Otomo Yoshide, Fred Frith, Phil Niblock, Trey Spruance, Clayton Thomas, Tess de Quincy, Axel Doerner, Adam Sussman, Ami Yoshida, Oren Ambarchi, Tony Buck, Ikue Mori, Satchiko M, Malcolm Goldstein and Annette Krebs."

-Australian Music Centre (http://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/artist/denley-jim)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Eric Normand is an improviser, bassist, instrument designer, composer, songwriter, singer and record and concert producer. He defines himself as an epidisciplinary musician, a free electron driven by its yearning for meetings. As an improviser, he develop a personal and radical playing on a homemade electric bass equipped with mics and objects feedbacking and vibrating in small electronic devices, creating electric flux interrupted by the instrumental gesture. With this set, he prefer to play duets, with Jim Denley (flute and sax), Philippe Lauzier (bass clarinet and sax), Sébastien Cirotteau (trumpet), Pierre-Yves Martel (viola de gamba and electronic), Jean-Luc Guionnet (saxophone), in addition of several spontaneous encounters.

He also play in bands involved in a more specific musical genre as danced poetry with BABABA, instrumental theatre with Le Veau/ The Veal, songs with Les Pitounes and Éric Normand Chante and folk music with The Surruralits and RRRRoyal Canadian Free Form Folk Experience. Interested in collective creation and orchestral improvisation, he lead for seven years the GGRIL, a 15 pieces band that have worked with composers such as Evan Parker, Jean Derome, Robert Marcel Lepage and Michael Fischer. His music has been programmed by or performed in several festivals in Canada , Australia and Europe. It have also been broadcasted by Radio-Canada, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, CBC, Radio-Grenouille, and several college radio stations."

-Eric Normand 3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. O I 3:17

2. O II 6:00

3. O III 10:57

4. Q I 7:10

5. L I 16:11

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Free Improvisation
Electro-Acoustic
Electro-Acoustic Improv
Musique Actuelle
Duo Recordings
Objects and Home-made Instruments
Canadian Composition & Improvisation
New in Experimental & Electronic Music

Search for other titles on the label:
Tour de Bras.


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