The 4th album from Japanese percussionist Seijiro Murayama and Parisian Jean Luc Guionnet, typically a saxophonist but here on pipe organ, presenting three live improvisations named for idiophones, instruments that creates sound by vibrating without the use of strings or membranes, with two improvisations at a church in Berlin and one at a church in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Format: CD Condition: New Released: 2018 Country: Japan Packaging: Cardboard sleeve, sealed Tracks 1 AND 3 recorded at Friedenskirche Charlottenburg, in Berlin, Germany, June 23rd, 2015.
Tracks 2 recorded at Sveti Jakob, in Lubljana, Slovenia, on September 21st, 2012.
"Seijiro Murayama (percussion, voice) lived in France for many years and is currently based in Paris. Alto sax player Jean Luc Guionnet, who lives in Paris, is also known as a pipe organist. The two musicians have released three CDs to date: Le Bruit du Toit (Xing-Wu Records, 2007), Window Dressing (Potlatch, 2011), and Mishima, Day and Night (Ftarri, 2015). Guionnet played the sax on each of these albums. Their fourth release, Idiophonic, is the first on which Murayama performs with Guionnet the organist. This album contains three improvised pieces. Two of them were performed at a church in Berlin, Germany, in June 2015, and the third at a church in Ljubljana, Slovenia, in September 2012. Murayama plays only the snare drum. (His voice is also heard from time to time on the first track.) The sound of Guionnet's organ--at different times loud, soft, majestic, and rough--is both noise-like and expressive. Murayama, meanwhile, effectively fires out sharp, striking sounds as he switches between sticks and brush. Each of them plays with restraint and a high degree of tension, never producing too much sound. Their musical compatibility, combined with the richly reverberating church acoustics, make for truly impressive performances."-Ftarri
The second disc has two pieces recorded in Berlin and one in Ljubljana; the latter in 2012 and the first two in 2015, which means that Jean-Luc Guionnet (organ) and Seijiro Murayama (snare drum, voice) have been going for some time. Murayama lives in France for years now and so it's easier for them to get around, I would think. Two of their previous releases were reviewed in Vital Weekly 987 and 793, but the difference here is that Guionnet is now playing the organ and Murayama uses his voice, although the latter not all the time. This is not music of the same quiet variety as Thut/Sugimoto, but takes on a rather more dynamic approach. The music can be quiet, for sure, but also piercing loud, although never for a long period of time. Besides their dynamic interaction they also use a variety of techniques to play their music, which makes it all the more interesting. The are stabs at the organ, piercing sustaining high notes or low end bass drone, while Murayama uses sticks, hands and objects to play his snare drum. Throughout they interact in a wonderful way, listening, responding, adding or subtracting to what the other is doing. One can hear they have been going about for some years, as there is much confidence in their playing."-Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly