The Squid's Ear Magazine


Denzler, Bertrand : Arc (Potlatch)

Created by Felicie Bazelaire, CoO is a string ensemble drawn from the French new music ensemble ONCEIM; CoO develops new repertoire for strings, collaborating with composers like Bertrand Denzler, who wrote this innovative composition "Arc" in two parts, a work applying unusual techniques to bowed strings, particularly lower bass tones, for fascinating results.
 

Price: $15.95


Quantity:

Out of Stock

Quantity in Basket: None

Log In to use our Wish List
Shipping Weight: 3.00 units

Sample The Album:





product information:

Personnel:



Bertrand Denzler-composer

Patricia Bosshard-violin

Cyprien Busolini-alto saxophone

Elodie Gaudet-alto saxophone

Anais Moreau-cello

Felicie Bazelaire-double bass

Benjamin Duboc-double bass

Fred Marty-double bass


Click an artist name above to see in-stock items for that artist.




UPC: 34915700033428

Label: Potlatch
Catalog ID: P119
Squidco Product Code: 27620

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2019
Country: France
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Recorded at La Muse en Circuit, in Paris, France, on May 25th, 2018, by Camille Lezer.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"Created by Felicie Bazelaire, CoO is a string ensemble bringing together string players of ONCEIM. CoO aims to build new directions in instrument research, and create a new repertoire for bowed strings. Felicie Bazelaire works with musicians who are composers and improvisers such as Bertrand Denzler with this composition Arc. The fruitful collaboration between musicians and composer helps to organize new ways of playing, and produce minimalist and innovative forms. Score gives priority to specific techniques applied to bowed strings, allowing musicians to experiment rich material, and focus on collective sound potentials."-Potlatch



"This release is particularly welcome as Potlatch Records has not released an album since Infra by Pascale Criton, in September 2017. As the label issued its first album-No Waiting, by Derek Bailey & Joëlle Léandre-in 1998, this is an opportunity to mark the ground-breaking label's twentieth anniversary, and send congratulations to proprietor Jacques Oger. It is fitting that an album featuring Bertrand Denzler marks the occasion, as he has been a Potlatch regular, in various guises.

Recently, saxophonist Denzler has gradually been transforming from performer (as on his 2011 Potlatch solo album Tenor ) to performer/composer (the 2015 Confront release Morph with ONCEIM) to composer (the 2018 Confront Collector Series album Basse Seule , written by Denzler, performed solo by bassist Félicie Bazelaire).

Although the cover of Arc credits Bertrand Denzler / CoÔ, its music was written by Denzler and performed by the seven-member CoÔ, which consists of the bowed strings from ONCEIM (l'Orchestre de Nouvelles Créations, Expérimentations et Improvisation Musicales, incidentally), including the septet's founder Bazelaire as one of its three double basses, alongside a cello, a violin and two violas. So, after writing for one bass on Basse Seule Denzler has now written for seven strings. The music here consists of the eighteen-minute "Arc 1.1" and the twenty-three minute "Arc 2.1."

Straight from the start of "Arc 1.1" it is clear that we are not in conventional string quartet territory, nor in that of improvising string ensembles such as Stellari String Quartet or Barrel. Having seven stringed instruments, in particular those three double basses, gives a rich, bottom-heavy soundscape which resembles that of an orchestra more than a quartet or trio. Denzler's compositions exploit those characteristics to the full. Although Basse Seule consisted mainly of a series of short études for bass, with a couple of longer pieces, the two Arc tracks have the same composer's fingerprints on them. Both make extensive use of long arco bass notes which never approach drone territory, but serve to underpin the music.

"Arc 1.1" consists of eighteen pieces ranging in length from thirty to seventy-five seconds, most being around fifty seconds long. The pieces are separated by breaks and so stand alone, although employing similar sounds. They are not particularly melodic, sounding as if they were written for dramatic effect, occasionally employing extended playing techniques to achieve this. The overall impression is like a cinematic soundtrack where short bursts of music fit particular scenes; in this case, given the album cover's beautiful spacey images, the appropriate scenes might involve the aliens' mother ship hovering just above a terrified city while the inhabitants anxiously wait to learn their fate...

In contrast, "Arc 2.1" consists of two extended pieces of about eleven minutes each, separated by a short break. Their lengths give the composer and performers a larger canvas to work with and they fully exploit that; in particular, the violin, violas and cello are far more in evidence, their parts being well-framed by the ever-present basses. As before, long arco notes prevail and merge together to amply fill the soundscape, creating rich, relaxing music in which it is very easy to drift off and lose oneself; this would be the ideal musical accompaniment to lying on one's back on a warm summer's evening and gazing up at the heavens, free of alien mother ships, of course. Exquisite. (Try it as you listen to the YouTube sample of the piece, below.)

On this showing, we must hope that Denzler continues to expand his composing activities... without abandoning his playing, of course."-John Eyles, All About Jazz


Get additional information at All About Jazz

Artist Biographies

"Bertrand Denzler is a tenor saxophone player. He has played in Europe and Latin America both as a solo act and with musicians such as Xavier Charles, Peter Frils Nielsen, Jean-Luc Guionnet, Barry Guy, Ninh Lê Quan, Urs Leimgruber, Günter Müller, Bob Ostertag, Norbert Pfammatter, Hasse Poulsen, Mark Sanders, Mathieu Werchowski, and Otomo Yoshihide. He is a member of the groups Hubbub, Nanocluster, Laps, Denzler-Mariage, A3/1, and Chamaeleo Vulgaris. He has put out a number of compact discs on various labels."-ActuelleCD.com (http://www.actuellecd.com/en/bio/denzler_be/)
4/28/2025

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

"Patricia Bosshard is a composer and violonist from Lausanne in Switzerland, having a musical background both in jazz as well as in electronics. Besides numerous gigs in the free impro-scene as soloist, with small groups or in big orchestras (ONCEIM, IMO), she collaborates with the video artist Nicolas Wintsch, composes orchestral music for film and for contemporary ensembles. She produced the acoustic signals for the Metro M2 in Lausanne. Winner of the Luffʼs price with Simon Grab with the MRI project, electronicmusic with MRI sounds. Artist resident at the Steim in 2012, working on a sensorbow. Her language elaborates a very fine listening into the sound."

-Ausland (https://ausland-berlin.de/patricia-bosshard)
4/28/2025

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

"Cyprien Busolini: violist Born in 1978. After classical studies of viola, Cyprien Busolini focuses mainly on contemporary repertoire and improvisation. He obtained a first viola prize at the CNR Rueil-Malmaison in the class of Françoise Gneri, then he perfected with P.Faure and P.H.Xuereb. His great interest in contemporary music and especially new works allows him to work with many composers like L.Naon, HULehmann, T.Johnson, JLGuionnet ... He has also played or created some of their solo pieces or sets. Improvisation allows him to work on other sound fields and to explore his instrument in a more personal way, notably on non-melodic and non-harmonic parameters but more focused on the matter of sound. Regularly, he works with dancers, actors, either in improvisation or for shows whose musical part he elaborates. On the other hand, he occasionally runs improvisation workshops for children. He currently plays in different ensembles, Dedalus, Onceim, and various groups of improvisation as well as in the whole Fratres, old music ensemble on old instruments. He has made several solo or Dedalus ensemble recordings, the Diagonal ensemble, but also with Garth Knox and various improvisational discs."

-Cyprien Busolini Website (Translated by Google) (http://www.cyprienbusolini.com/projets_-_bio_files/bio%20c.Busolini.pdf)
4/28/2025

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

"Anaïs Moreau - cello - Graduated from the Royal College of Music in London ; plays with Nomos, Laborintus, IMPACT, WARN!NG ; works with various composers such as Tomas Bordalejo, Stefano Bonilauri, François Rossé etc ; teaches cello at the Pantin conservatory."

-Onceim (https://onceim.fr/anais-moreau/?lang=en)
4/28/2025

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

"Felicie Bazelaire is a cello and double bass player based in Paris. She shares her time in different ways : between concerts and performances, studying pedagogy through a Masters degree at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris, and teaching at the Orsay and Auxerre's conservatory. She is interested in classical music (chamber music) and contemporary music with her solo projects (improvisation, compositions, performances/actions...), the Hodos ensemble and the ONCEIM (a french improvised large orchestra led by Frederic Blondy). She is curious about the link between musicians, composers, improvisers and the actual music."

-Ausland (https://ausland-berlin.de/bazelaire/leiderman/mayas)
4/28/2025

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

"Benjamin Duboc is a very strong voice on double bass, born 1969, studied with JF Jenny-Clark & Bernard Cazauran, and has played with many great musicians (as Ernest Dawkins, Bertrand Denzler, Roy Campbell, Jean-Luc Cappozzo, Sabir Mateen, Byard Lancaster, Daniel Erdmann, Abdelahaï Bennani, Michel Doneda, Daunik Lazro, Sunny Murray, John Betsch...). And also with Henry Grimes for a great duet in Paris. He leads the "Nuts" quintet with Itaru Oki & Rasul Siddik on trumpets, & Makoto Sato & Didier Lasserre on drums. He plays in "The fish" with Jean-Luc Guionnet on alto sax & Edward Perraud on drums (double cd on Ayler Records) and Rocks in the Sea with Mario Rechtern, Eric Zinman and Didier Lasserre. Benjamin has a beautiful and big sound, you really feel the ground while hearing him... it's somethin' ! He also is recorded on Amor Fati, Futura Marge, Creative sources, le petit label, sansbruit."

-Benjamin Duboc Website (http://benjamin.duboc.free.fr/biography.htm)
4/28/2025

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

"Fred Marty was born in Blaye (Gironde) in 1970. After studying classical bass studies, he devoted his work to improvisation and experimentation of various game modes on bass. He strives to develop a personal language, inspired by everyday sounds, making some forget the bass itself (distorted sounds, harmonics "gaps" in incomplete or misleading spectrum percussion sounds without specific height, sounds The rubbing of the fingers or the hand on the body of the double bass). He also modifies the timbre by inserting between ropes of wooden or metal rods. Each part of the body of the double bass becomes an instrument of its own.

Thus, co-creation he also collaborated in multidisciplinary projects combining dance, music, and video playback, including Anne Ropers collective recidiva in UNICA, a project calling itself "night moves" around the collection of poems of the same Title of Henri Michaux, or with Bérengère Altieri-Leca in the duo OKAMI.

Fred Marty has played with Yuko Oshima, Ai Watanabe, Birgitte Lyregaard, Yoko Arai, Frederic Blondy, Edward Perraud, Itaru Oki, Claude Speaks, Xavier Lopez, Michel Doneda Sebastien Bouhana, Marcos Fernandes, Usui Yasuhiro, Alvise Sinivia Michael Nick, Daunik Lazro, Isabelle Duthoit, Benoit Cancoin, Matsumoto Kenichi, Jean Marc Foussat, Yoko Arai, Eric Dambrin John Cuny, Jean Brice Godet, Alexandre Bellenger, Nush Werchowska Mathieu Garrouste Pascal Marzan, Cyprien Busolini, Nicolas Souchal, Deborah Walker, Patricia Bosshard, Jean-Marc Foussat, Yoko Miura, Francesco Pastacaldi Richard Comte, Hideo Ikegami, Ugo Boscain and works with dancers of butoh Gyouhei Zaitsu, Maki Watanabe and dancer Bérengère Altieri-Leca.

Since 2012 he is a member of ONCEIM, an orchestra conducted by Frédéric Blondy."

-Fred Marty Website translated by Google (https://fredmartyDoublebass.wordpress.com/a-propos/)
4/28/2025

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


Track Listing:



1. Arc 1.1 17:57

2. Arc 2.1 23:05

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Free Improvisation
European Improvisation, Composition and Experimental Forms
Stringed Instruments
Septet recordings
Compositional Forms
New in Compositional Music

Search for other titles on the label:
Potlatch.


Recommended & Related Releases:
Other Recommended Releases:
Sbatax (Denzler / Gerbal)
Spires
(Umlaut Records)
A high-intensity free jazz workout from the French duo of tenor saxophonist Bertrand Denzler and drummer Antonin Gerbal, long-time collaborators in their 3rd sax & drum duo album, anticipating each other's gestures to allow them flexibility in creating textural approaches to their dialog, challenging physical limits while subtly progressing their frenzied and arresting playing.
Denzler, Bertrand / Jason Kahn
Translations
(Potlatch)
The seventh release on Potlatch for tenor saxophonist Bertrand Denzler and the first for electronic artist Jason Kahn, in an extended electroacoustic improvisation, Denzler performing his instrument in ways Adolphe Sax did not intend intersected by Kahn's bent and crackly emissions, each increasingly assertive through to a engrossing, exhalable end.
Guerineau, Sylvain / Fred Marty
Parodies
(Creative Sources)
A statesman of the French free improvisation scene, Sylvain Guerineau, who has performed with Sunny Murray, Joëlle Léandre and more recently as part of a trio with Didier Lasserre and Paul Rogers, joins with next-generation double bassist Fred Marty integrating advanced techniques into lyrical contexts, for five satisfying improvisations, the last a reference to Sonny Rollins.
Busolini, Cyprien / Bertrand Gauguet
Miroir
(Akousis Records)
An album of intensive listening through concentrated improvisation from the long-running collaboration of French improvisers, Cyprien Busolini on viola and Bertrand Gauguet on alto saxophone, both using unfaltering techniques as they metamorphose their instruments from delicate silence to forceful tones, oscillating and vacillating across two extended improvisations.
Battus, Pascal / Michel Doneda
Miracle
(Potlatch)
Dovetailing and combining the rich harmonics of Michel Doneda's soprano and sopranino saxophone with Pascal Battus' rotating surfaces--mechanisms from small consumer electronics and their like put in motion and in contact with resonators and vibrators--this French improvising duo create fascinatingly shifting, unusual textures and sonic environments.
Bosshard, Patricia
Onceim-CoO
(Potlatch)
Two major works of evolving acoustic soundscape from Swiss violinist & composer Patricia Bosshard realized by the 27-member Orchestra des Nouvelles Creations, which includes Bosshard, Stephane Rives, Bertrand Denzler, &c.; "Sillon" employs a percussive pulse over 27 independently transforming grooves; "Reflets" a harmonic composition for bowed strings, including three double basses.
Guedon, Yannick
L'insistance Des Possibles
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
French voice artist and composer Yannick GuŽdon living in Brussels composed this extended work, the title translating to "insistence on possibilities", realized with cellist Deborah Walker and violist Cyprien Busolini, Guédon merging extended utterance into long string drones, contrasted with silence, as the piece moves through very specific placement.
Denzler, Bertrand / Antonin Gerbal / Alex Dorner
Le Ring
(Confront)
Having performed in duos previously, this trio came together at Festival Noise No. 5, at Theatre Le Ring, in Toulouse, the sound of the group is a "malleable space in which the musicians generate small or bigger shapes, simple and complex sounds, irregular and mechanical rhythms."
Ensemble Hodos
Lifework : A Unity - Ensemble Hodos plays Philip Corner (Vol. 1)
(Umlaut Records)
Saxophonist Pierre-Antoine Badaroux and double bassist Sebastien Beliah formed Ensemble Hodos in 2008 to perform the music of composers who wrote scores that include freedom and/or improvisation for the players, here performing the music of Philip Corner.
Zoor
Volumes A + B
(Umlaut Records)
The French trio of saxophonist Bertrand Denzler, guitarist Jean-Sebastien Mariage and drummer Antonin Gerbal in two extended works beginning and ending on a sustained plateau while maintaining a constant state of anticipatory suspense using no electronics, treatments or effects.
Denzler, Bertrand / Antonin Gerbal
Heretofore
(Umlaut Records)
The duo of tenor saxophonist Bertrand Denzler and percussionist Antonin Gerbal, 2/3 of the Zoor trio, in an album of free improvisation contrasting simple and complex sounds, organic and mechanical rhythms while evoking asymmetric, geometric or enigmatic shapes.
Denzler / Guionnet / Kinoshita / Unami
Vasistas
(Creative Sources)



Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought:
Dorner, Axel / Allemano, Lina
Aphelia
(Relative Pitch)
Bringing together two exceptional trumpeters approaching their instruments in innovative ways--Berlin trumpeter Axel Dorner and Toronto trumpeter Lina Alleman--in duos and virtual ensembles, each of the eight improvisations titled for lesser-known, smaller celestial bodies, the album title referring to the furthest distance an object achieves while orbiting the sun.
Dunkelman, Nava / Gabby Fluke-Mogul
Likht
(Relative Pitch)
Two New York improvisers — percussionist Nava Dunkelman and violinst Gabby Fluke-Mogul — sharing a background from Mills College and work with luminaries including Fred Frith, present their extroverted approaches to free improvisation in these eleven assertive dialogs recorded in the studio, their compatibility and love of unusual techniques evident.
Shiraishi, Tamio
Moon
(Relative Pitch)
Known for his resonant solo alto saxophone work, often recording with the New York City subways, this album presents ten unusual duos between Tamio Shiraishi and improvisers on piano, voice, cello, electronics, bass, guitar and sax, with Tim Dahl, Steve Baczkowski, Mico, Mike Sidnam, Austin Sley Julian, Nina Dante, Tara Fenamore, Leila Bordreuil, Chris Libutti, and Ami Yamasaki.
Lipscomb, Jon
Conscious Without Function
(Relative Pitch)
Swedish guitar improviser Jon Lipscomb (LOPLOP, Swedish Fix) takes his listeners on a rugged trip across the strings, using distortion, tremolo and rapid-fire technique as he mines territories between free improv, noise and rock, his nimble mind stopping to explore areas of interest then cascading into new, turbulent environments; frightfully powerful.
Millar, E / Christof Kurzmann
Rare Entertainment
(Mystery & Wonder)
The first meeting of Austrian improviser Christof Kurzmann (The Magic I.D., Schee) and Montreal sound artist Elizabeth Millar (Sound of the Mountain, Ensemble Supermusique) in two tremendous multi-part performances live at the 2019 Suoni Per il Popolo Festival in Montreal, works of mysteriously vibratory backdrop, insinuating narrative voice and unsettling sonic interaction.
Clotet, Amidea
Trasluz
(Relative Pitch)
Sorollets i catxarros—noises and rattles—from Barcelona electric guitarist and free improviser Amidea Clotet, who explores unusual possibilites from the instrument through textural approaches and amplification, evoking unusual soundscapes of inexplicable sound from the body, hardware and strings of the guitar, in seven unusual and fascinating expositions.
Reichel, Hans
Bonobo Beach: Some More Guitar Solos
(Corbett vs. Dempsey)
The fourth and final record of solo guitar works from German guitarist and instrument inventor Hans Reichel, perhaps the most lyrical of the lot as he improvises on an unusual set of guitars, including a fretless Spanish guitar, 6 & 12 string guitars with extra frets, and an electric pick-behind-the-bridge guitar; fully restored artwork includes Reichel's amusing insert.
Physique (Sam Scranton / Neil Quigley)
Curve Tote
(Amalgam)
Creating soundscapes from homemade instruments, Text-To-Speech, AI voices, lap steel guitar, found objects, field recording, &c., the duo of sound artists Sam Scranton from Chicago and Neil Quigley from Kilkenny, Ireland, present six unusually unfolding compositions of deceptively relaxed environments layered with mysterious elements and a sly sense of humor.
Burnett, Aaron
Correspondence
(Relative Pitch)
Known for his ensemble The Big Machine with Peter Evans, Carlos Homs, &c., NYC saxophonist Aaron Burnett steps out for a solo album of intense improvisatory exploration, demonstrating his background in classical saxophone studies that fuels an ardent intensity in personal expression, a tremendous balance between technique and passion.
Mirror Unit (Georg Wissel / Tim O'Dwyer)
Sonic Rivers
(FMR)
Following their Creative Sources album Wind Makes Weather, alto saxophonists Tim O'Dwyer and Georg Wissel, both employing preparations on their instruments, improvise a confluence of sonic rivers evoking, exploring and reflecting waterways from around the world, captured in concert at the cinema hall of the cultural center Alte Feuerwache, in Cologne.
Myers, David Lee
Room In A Moon House
(pulsewidth)
A series of "Rooms" and related electronic environments from New York sound artist David Lee Myers, whose long running Arcane Device project runs parallel to these nearly ambient works that Myers intimates are for intimate environments, developed through deft use of Eurorack electronics, feedback, sampling and other elegant electronic processes.
Edwards, John / N.O. Moore / Eddie Prevost / Alan Wilkinson
EMPoWered
(577 Records)
A live performance from London's I'klectik by British musicians John Edwards (double bass), N.O. Moore (guitar), and Eddie Prévost (drums), who have a long-standing history as a trio known for both energetic playing and extraordinary introspection, here expanded with saxophonist Alan Wilkinson for two outstanding performances of technical mastery and deep communication.
Ronn, Christian / Bob Bellerue
Intoku Inversions
(Anarchy Moon Recordings/Nishe)
Beautiful long-form drones and harmonic interactions develop and are then shaken up with sonic deformations and collisions, returning to beautiful environments and then reversed once again, from the duo of sonic explorers Bob Bellerue and Christian Ronn, recording in Copenhagen using organs, electronics, winds, and feedback to create these wonderfully alien domains.
Campbell, Roy / John Dikeman / Raoul van der Weide / Peter Jacquemyn / Klaus Kugel
When The Time Is Right
(577 Records)
Performing at Bimhuis in 2013, the trans-Atlantic quintet of Roy Campbell on trumpet, flugelhorn & flute, John Dikeman on saxophone, Raoul van der Weide on cello & percussion, Peter Jacquemyn on bass & voice and Klaus Kugel on drums, perform an extended, energetic and dynamic set of free improvisation, with intricate melodies and beautifully rich transitions.



The Squid's Ear Magazine

The Squid's Ear Magazine

© 2002-, Squidco LLC